Dear Diary,
I hate statues.
I especially hate the kind that come to life and try to kill you. That’s usually the kind of statues that we run into. We seem to have a real talent for finding those. It’s uncanny.
Let me back up. After the monkey slaughter, we settled in the filthy monkey room to rest for a few hours. After the big brains got all of their magic tricks prepared for the day, we tried to figure out how to find and rescue the rest of the team.
Well, I sure as hell never came up with a plan and if anyone ever came up with a plan I sure as hell never heard it but we took off anyway like we knew exactly what we were doing. To look at us you would think “Wow. There’s a bunch of guys that have their shit together.” And you would be completely wrong.
I guess our ‘plan’ amounted to bashing a locked door and running down a hall of screaming monkey statues. That’s right – screaming monkey statues. At the end of that hall was a pair of big, demonic brass doors. We opened those doors to quite a scene.
At our end of the room was a short set of steps down to the floor level of a sixty-foot-long room. In the middle of the room was a ten foot wide fire pit. At the far end of the room was a short flight of steps up to a platform where stood a freaking huge statue of my favorite two-headed monkey snake loser. Suspended with chains forty feet above the fire pit was – Daria! We found Daria! As soon as we opened those brass doors, a winch mechanism began lowering Daria into the fire pit.
I was already through the doors when I heard screaming from the hallway. I figured that the rest of the team could manage to defend themselves and that someone else would save Daria so I took off to deal with the most pressing problem: the statue.
I took off across the room. I jumped down the steps, across the fire pit, and up to the platform and hit the statue with all I had. Nesta took a couple steps down the stairs and fired three arrows at the winch mechanism. One of the arrows stuck and jammed the works so that Daria stopped descending.
Throughout all of the shouting and fighting, I just kept hacking away at the inert statue. After half a dozen chops, I had it destroyed and could turn my attention to the battle going on behind me.
Apparently, the team was fighting the chief demon monkey and he was pulling out all the stops - turning invisible, teleporting, summoning darkness… the whole works. I got one good whack at him before he disappeared on us. I then had a great idea and moved to attack another one of his statues. Sure enough, he wasn’t about to hide and let me systematically destroy his temple. Gwen sang one of her songs and an area of the room was coated in raining gold flecks. The gold flecks revealed the invisible monkey demon moving to stop me. He was quickly cut down.
Guess what happened next. After what should have been the last battle, the damn statue that I had so thoughtfully destroyed, reassembled itself and came to life. The whole team had to give it all we had to destroy this damn thing. Just like the monkeys, the statue seemed resistant to all but our mightiest blows (mine). We killed it just he same. Ha! The loser just should have stayed dead until we left.
Mystic Z supposes that the statue may have just been an inert stone statue until we earned the personal attention and wrath of whomever the statue represented – just freakin’ great.
We still didn’t find much good treasure.
-R
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
No Small Sacrifice
With Daria wandering off, the party discovers a secret room behind the throne room. One chest was trapped and incinerated when it was bashed open. The other chest had some of the loot Rudy was expecting.
Checking the whereabouts of Daria's last known position, the door opens into a room of bones. Ranging from two to ten feet think, the bones hamper movement all around the room. Nesta examines a fountain, and Kongu just smashes the thing until it sprays water everywhere. A large human headed snake zombie thingy rises from a pile of bones and casts a spell. Z panics and casts silence. So there is no sound while the party pounds the snake monster into mush. Z uses a spell he saves for Kongu, and repairs the fountain back into working order.
Then the party travels down a long hall of howling ape statues. Rudy runs and opens the far door. This time there are five Statues and a big fire pit, with Daria swinging from a chain over the pit. Rudy is furious that the statues would do something like that, so he charges the far status and starts bashing it until it falls into rubble. The big monkey-demon-smelly-ape-brute appears out of nowhere and starts clobbering everyone. The chain holding Daria starts to drop her into the fire pit. With combat raging all around, Nesta pulls a once-in-a-lifetime bow shot planting an arrow deep into the gears of the winch moving the chain. The boss monkey flies into a rage and pounds everyone. A few characters fall unconscious in combat, wounded. At the end of their rope, the party merely outlasts Monkey-kong.
Apparently, the destruction of the main statue attracts the wrong kind of attention. A strange green mist forms around the statue and it reforms and attacks the party. The two-headed monkey statue is a juggernaut, attacking with its vicious tentacles. When the statue finally falls, the aura of evil leaves the shrine and the foggy mists dissipate into the air.
The way now clear, the party continues southward. They find a recently abandoned village, and a dinosaur tries to eat Vin.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Kongu, Rudolpho, Vin, Gwendelyn, Ortho, Z
Session Loot: 2000gp, 3000sp, +1 buckler, wand of aid(50), +1 warhammer spell storing, potion of haste, bone shaped copper wand of lesser silent metamagic, +2 bracers of armor, boots of levitation, +1 cloak of resistance, ring of the ram, +2 ring of protection
Checking the whereabouts of Daria's last known position, the door opens into a room of bones. Ranging from two to ten feet think, the bones hamper movement all around the room. Nesta examines a fountain, and Kongu just smashes the thing until it sprays water everywhere. A large human headed snake zombie thingy rises from a pile of bones and casts a spell. Z panics and casts silence. So there is no sound while the party pounds the snake monster into mush. Z uses a spell he saves for Kongu, and repairs the fountain back into working order.
Then the party travels down a long hall of howling ape statues. Rudy runs and opens the far door. This time there are five Statues and a big fire pit, with Daria swinging from a chain over the pit. Rudy is furious that the statues would do something like that, so he charges the far status and starts bashing it until it falls into rubble. The big monkey-demon-smelly-ape-brute appears out of nowhere and starts clobbering everyone. The chain holding Daria starts to drop her into the fire pit. With combat raging all around, Nesta pulls a once-in-a-lifetime bow shot planting an arrow deep into the gears of the winch moving the chain. The boss monkey flies into a rage and pounds everyone. A few characters fall unconscious in combat, wounded. At the end of their rope, the party merely outlasts Monkey-kong.
Apparently, the destruction of the main statue attracts the wrong kind of attention. A strange green mist forms around the statue and it reforms and attacks the party. The two-headed monkey statue is a juggernaut, attacking with its vicious tentacles. When the statue finally falls, the aura of evil leaves the shrine and the foggy mists dissipate into the air.
The way now clear, the party continues southward. They find a recently abandoned village, and a dinosaur tries to eat Vin.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Kongu, Rudolpho, Vin, Gwendelyn, Ortho, Z
Session Loot: 2000gp, 3000sp, +1 buckler, wand of aid(50), +1 warhammer spell storing, potion of haste, bone shaped copper wand of lesser silent metamagic, +2 bracers of armor, boots of levitation, +1 cloak of resistance, ring of the ram, +2 ring of protection
Monday, December 10, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
Who is this stupid two-headed snake / monkey guy?
Whoever he is, I hate him. I hope he has two asses also so I can kick both of them. This whole foggy mire is probably his fault. After the big monkey battle, Z used some magic to finally find a way through the jungle to a mountain temple of some sort.
The temple had two entrances. Each of them was a big, ugly monkey face. We went in and wandered around and saw some boring crap that some of the other team found really freaking fascinating. In one room, we found a riddle and a pair of statues Nesta ran all over the room until she had placed her hands in each of the statues’ mouths and we gained entry into another room.
So, I’m told anyway. At the time, I was buried under a big pile of rubble. Much earlier, I had gotten bored and decided to leave – by way of the other big, ugly monkey face. The entrance was rigged to collapse and I found myself buried under tons of rubble.
Of course, this immediately pissed me off. I struggled for about a minute to get all of that crap off of me and several times I thought I just about had it. Well, diary, I guess some things are just beyond even me. I was starting to feel like I was going to give out from lack of air.
Well, I guess the others must have heard it and sent Kongu to investigate because just when I was bout to give up I finally heaved myself up through the rubble to see that Kongu had removed some of the largest rocks.
Like I said, the team had gained entry into a previously hidden room. This room was even more of a boring pain in the ass. There was an altar with two candles, two mirrors, and two thrones. We played around with all of this ridiculous crap for a few moments before somebody did something that got us all burnt. That was real freaking funny.
Then to make it even more boring than before, everyone stood out of range of any future fire explosions and set bout poking around at all of this crap in a very systematic and boring way. Eventually we opened two portals in the two mirrors and, if you can believe this crap, had to kill feral duplicates of Daria and Nesta.
The portals let us into yet another strange chamber. This one had what looked to be a natural rock shelf some forty feet up. I began to climb the wall to get to this rock ledge when we were attacked by filthy monkeys.
This battle ran much as the first. The monkeys just couldn’t seem to be hurt with weapons and seemed to be immune to Ortho’s magic lightning – a real shitty arrangement if you ask me. Anyway, those monkeys tried all of their tricks but they couldn’t fool me a second time and we killed them.
After that, we explored an area of the cave system just off of the rock shelf. We opened a door and were overwhelmed by a leaping, howling mob of filthy monkeys. Armor and shields were no use against the tide so Kongu threw down his shield and started swinging his sword with both hands. He didn’t even have to aim; there were so many monkeys that you couldn’t swing a sword without hitting one.
I’ve never seen such carnage before. It was great! Kongu sent pieces of monkey fur, bones, and organs flying everywhere. Vin & I tried to keep up with Kongu’s extermination and within a few seconds, the mob had dispersed and fled back to the jungle. Yep, that was the high point of my week. Nothing says success like being coated with the entrails of your enemy.
As much as I enjoyed the slaughter, I was disappointed to find no real loot. We also could not find Daria (or evil, fake Daria). Oh well, I cared about that for about as long as it took me to settle into a nice nap. Daria will show up sooner or later – probably with the loot.
-R
Who is this stupid two-headed snake / monkey guy?
Whoever he is, I hate him. I hope he has two asses also so I can kick both of them. This whole foggy mire is probably his fault. After the big monkey battle, Z used some magic to finally find a way through the jungle to a mountain temple of some sort.
The temple had two entrances. Each of them was a big, ugly monkey face. We went in and wandered around and saw some boring crap that some of the other team found really freaking fascinating. In one room, we found a riddle and a pair of statues Nesta ran all over the room until she had placed her hands in each of the statues’ mouths and we gained entry into another room.
So, I’m told anyway. At the time, I was buried under a big pile of rubble. Much earlier, I had gotten bored and decided to leave – by way of the other big, ugly monkey face. The entrance was rigged to collapse and I found myself buried under tons of rubble.
Of course, this immediately pissed me off. I struggled for about a minute to get all of that crap off of me and several times I thought I just about had it. Well, diary, I guess some things are just beyond even me. I was starting to feel like I was going to give out from lack of air.
Well, I guess the others must have heard it and sent Kongu to investigate because just when I was bout to give up I finally heaved myself up through the rubble to see that Kongu had removed some of the largest rocks.
Like I said, the team had gained entry into a previously hidden room. This room was even more of a boring pain in the ass. There was an altar with two candles, two mirrors, and two thrones. We played around with all of this ridiculous crap for a few moments before somebody did something that got us all burnt. That was real freaking funny.
Then to make it even more boring than before, everyone stood out of range of any future fire explosions and set bout poking around at all of this crap in a very systematic and boring way. Eventually we opened two portals in the two mirrors and, if you can believe this crap, had to kill feral duplicates of Daria and Nesta.
The portals let us into yet another strange chamber. This one had what looked to be a natural rock shelf some forty feet up. I began to climb the wall to get to this rock ledge when we were attacked by filthy monkeys.
This battle ran much as the first. The monkeys just couldn’t seem to be hurt with weapons and seemed to be immune to Ortho’s magic lightning – a real shitty arrangement if you ask me. Anyway, those monkeys tried all of their tricks but they couldn’t fool me a second time and we killed them.
After that, we explored an area of the cave system just off of the rock shelf. We opened a door and were overwhelmed by a leaping, howling mob of filthy monkeys. Armor and shields were no use against the tide so Kongu threw down his shield and started swinging his sword with both hands. He didn’t even have to aim; there were so many monkeys that you couldn’t swing a sword without hitting one.
I’ve never seen such carnage before. It was great! Kongu sent pieces of monkey fur, bones, and organs flying everywhere. Vin & I tried to keep up with Kongu’s extermination and within a few seconds, the mob had dispersed and fled back to the jungle. Yep, that was the high point of my week. Nothing says success like being coated with the entrails of your enemy.
As much as I enjoyed the slaughter, I was disappointed to find no real loot. We also could not find Daria (or evil, fake Daria). Oh well, I cared about that for about as long as it took me to settle into a nice nap. Daria will show up sooner or later – probably with the loot.
-R
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Monkey Shrines
Mirror play. The party, not content with opening the portal, continue with ritual experiments. Deciding that an evil Gweyndlyn was the least lethal opponent, the experiment go on with an almost sinister tone.
Finally, entering the portal, they find a cavern filled with standing water and reeking of wet fur. The eerie red light of the cavern shows a cloud of blood in the middle of the water in the room. Then more demonic monkeys attack. The battle is fierce as the party takes numerous severe and savage attacks. Illusions, teleporting, an darkness are not enough to overcome the intrepid adventurers.
Kongu opens the door to a room with columns and a throne, only to be assaulted by a mob of crazed monkeys. The monkey mob follows Kongu's tactical retreat into the passageway. The party is blurred in a mass of fangs and fur. Kongu drops all defenses and manhandles his weapon into the crowd. Blood and bone spray everywhere as Kongu power attacks until the last monkey falls.
The party rest, recuperates, and searches the area. Where is Daria?
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Z
Session Loot: [none] Rudolpho is getting suspicious.
Finally, entering the portal, they find a cavern filled with standing water and reeking of wet fur. The eerie red light of the cavern shows a cloud of blood in the middle of the water in the room. Then more demonic monkeys attack. The battle is fierce as the party takes numerous severe and savage attacks. Illusions, teleporting, an darkness are not enough to overcome the intrepid adventurers.
Kongu opens the door to a room with columns and a throne, only to be assaulted by a mob of crazed monkeys. The monkey mob follows Kongu's tactical retreat into the passageway. The party is blurred in a mass of fangs and fur. Kongu drops all defenses and manhandles his weapon into the crowd. Blood and bone spray everywhere as Kongu power attacks until the last monkey falls.
The party rest, recuperates, and searches the area. Where is Daria?
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Z
Session Loot: [none] Rudolpho is getting suspicious.
Monday, November 26, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
I hate monkeys.
Monkeys are like hairy, short, smelly, filthy, disgusting gnomes and it’s starting to look as if we’re shipwrecked on freaking Monkey Island. All of our current troubles started when we decided to take a detour from the old mountain road.
We found of a trail that led into the jungle and Nesta thought that it would be a simple matter to venture into the jungle to replenish our water supplies. The jungle was complete crap. The trees were all screwed up and there were snakes everywhere. Even the jungle sounds were screwed up. The jungle sounded like monkeys. It was foggy, soggy, and crappy and then Nesta got us lost.
Well, I should back up a bit. Before we got lost we found a clearing with some boring rubble of boring old structures– or maybe we were in the other clearing without the rubble. Anyway we’re in this clearing and there this guy hanging upside down babbling some gobble-dee-gook. There was a hole in his chest where his heart had been cut out but that didn’t stop him from his constant jibber-jabber about the master of something or some crap killing us and keeping us in the jungle forever. He seemed real happy to be hanging there upside down with his heart cut out.
Somebody (I don’t remember who) had the idea to question mister – upside-down – dead – loser – guy. Vin, of course, had ideas of his own. He got out his holy symbol and shouted some crap and our new friend blew up. Yep, Diary, he just blew up like a barrel of alchemist’s fire. Bits of skin and bones and brains and teeth and flaming unidentifiable grue hit us all in the face and what was left of the poor guy’s skull rolled down the path a few feet.
I had to ask, “So, Vin, did you learn anything useful from him?”
We spent a couple of minutes scraping rotten flesh from ourselves and then followed the trail to another clearing. This clearing had even less crap to hold my interest so we continued on with the mission but we couldn’t find our way to a pond or any other source of fresh water.
As a matter of fact, that’s when Nesta got us lost. I mean - we were all equally lost but it IS Nesta’s job to avoid that particular fate. We wandered around until dark. We tried everything to get out of that jungle but Nesta had screwed us all pretty well. Eventually, the second team caught up with us and then all hope of rescue was gone to shit.
About the time that the whole squad was having a big, hugging, sappy reunion, we were finally attacked. I use the word “finally” because I was so bored that anything was a welcome relief.
We were attacked by six-foot-tall filthy monkey demon thingies. They had all sorts of tricks to use against us. First, they dropped out of the making their ridiculous screeches and howls and clawing at us with their filthy paws. One of them summoned up some of that magic darkness that screws with even my darkvision. I hate that crap. While everyone else was stumbling around blind, I managed to attack one of the monkeys. I thought that I had really dealt the smelly loser a death blow but it turned out that I didn’t cut him that deeply.
Anyway, while that was going on I noticed Daria sneaking up behind captain ball-buster and letting her have it with her dagger. The captain didn’t last long. One good stab and it was over. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Daria was a cold-blooded murderer.
As the battle raged on, I was pissed off to find that the monkey-demons were capable of teleporting, turning invisible, and taking the shape of others. That made fighting them a pain in the ass. The monkey losers kept teleporting our teammates away and taking on their likenesses.
After the battle, I was still bothered by Captain Ball-Buster’s death. I was the only one that saw Daria do it and I didn’t mention it to anyone else. While the rest of the team was lamenting the captain’s loss and wondering how it happened, I figured it out: one of the monkeys had taken Daria and replaced her! I knew Daria could not have turned evil. I almost got excited about this revelation and then I remembered that I don’t really care one way or another so I just had a sip of stanky beer and went about my business.
Anyway, we killed a couple of losers; a couple of losers got away; our second team got kidnapped; and Daria may actually be an evil demon-monkey but I guess I’m coping.
-R
I hate monkeys.
Monkeys are like hairy, short, smelly, filthy, disgusting gnomes and it’s starting to look as if we’re shipwrecked on freaking Monkey Island. All of our current troubles started when we decided to take a detour from the old mountain road.
We found of a trail that led into the jungle and Nesta thought that it would be a simple matter to venture into the jungle to replenish our water supplies. The jungle was complete crap. The trees were all screwed up and there were snakes everywhere. Even the jungle sounds were screwed up. The jungle sounded like monkeys. It was foggy, soggy, and crappy and then Nesta got us lost.
Well, I should back up a bit. Before we got lost we found a clearing with some boring rubble of boring old structures– or maybe we were in the other clearing without the rubble. Anyway we’re in this clearing and there this guy hanging upside down babbling some gobble-dee-gook. There was a hole in his chest where his heart had been cut out but that didn’t stop him from his constant jibber-jabber about the master of something or some crap killing us and keeping us in the jungle forever. He seemed real happy to be hanging there upside down with his heart cut out.
Somebody (I don’t remember who) had the idea to question mister – upside-down – dead – loser – guy. Vin, of course, had ideas of his own. He got out his holy symbol and shouted some crap and our new friend blew up. Yep, Diary, he just blew up like a barrel of alchemist’s fire. Bits of skin and bones and brains and teeth and flaming unidentifiable grue hit us all in the face and what was left of the poor guy’s skull rolled down the path a few feet.
I had to ask, “So, Vin, did you learn anything useful from him?”
We spent a couple of minutes scraping rotten flesh from ourselves and then followed the trail to another clearing. This clearing had even less crap to hold my interest so we continued on with the mission but we couldn’t find our way to a pond or any other source of fresh water.
As a matter of fact, that’s when Nesta got us lost. I mean - we were all equally lost but it IS Nesta’s job to avoid that particular fate. We wandered around until dark. We tried everything to get out of that jungle but Nesta had screwed us all pretty well. Eventually, the second team caught up with us and then all hope of rescue was gone to shit.
About the time that the whole squad was having a big, hugging, sappy reunion, we were finally attacked. I use the word “finally” because I was so bored that anything was a welcome relief.
We were attacked by six-foot-tall filthy monkey demon thingies. They had all sorts of tricks to use against us. First, they dropped out of the making their ridiculous screeches and howls and clawing at us with their filthy paws. One of them summoned up some of that magic darkness that screws with even my darkvision. I hate that crap. While everyone else was stumbling around blind, I managed to attack one of the monkeys. I thought that I had really dealt the smelly loser a death blow but it turned out that I didn’t cut him that deeply.
Anyway, while that was going on I noticed Daria sneaking up behind captain ball-buster and letting her have it with her dagger. The captain didn’t last long. One good stab and it was over. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Daria was a cold-blooded murderer.
As the battle raged on, I was pissed off to find that the monkey-demons were capable of teleporting, turning invisible, and taking the shape of others. That made fighting them a pain in the ass. The monkey losers kept teleporting our teammates away and taking on their likenesses.
After the battle, I was still bothered by Captain Ball-Buster’s death. I was the only one that saw Daria do it and I didn’t mention it to anyone else. While the rest of the team was lamenting the captain’s loss and wondering how it happened, I figured it out: one of the monkeys had taken Daria and replaced her! I knew Daria could not have turned evil. I almost got excited about this revelation and then I remembered that I don’t really care one way or another so I just had a sip of stanky beer and went about my business.
Anyway, we killed a couple of losers; a couple of losers got away; our second team got kidnapped; and Daria may actually be an evil demon-monkey but I guess I’m coping.
-R
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Welcome to the Jungle
The heroes continue traveling cliffs along the eastern shore of the Isle of Dread. The party finds a small mountain pass on the trail. Off in the distance a steamy jungle surrounds a lake off in the distance. The mountain pass is a ten mile journey through twisting, winding canyons of rock. The pass opens into a large, dark, fog-shrouded jungle. The ground is swampy, wet and as the group moves into the jungle the flora and fauna grow strange and twisted.
A small trail lead to an old ruin. There in the ruins, an old corpse strung upside-down on a crossed pair of logs in an "X" pattern. As the party approaches and examines the body, the zombie speaks. "Welcome to my home, travelers. You come a long way to stay here forever. At least you live. That is good for now. My home is your home now and forever." Vin summons divine energy to turn the vile creature and obliterated it into smoking ash.
Attempts to explore the jungle further are in vain, as all attempts return the party into the ruins. Trapped, the party tries other options to find its way out. Demonic apes assault the adventurers and with darkness and teleportation cause quite a bit of trouble. A few people are scattered and missing. A bit of divination reveals the location of a hidden shrine near the ruins and the party makes a direct line there.
There are two entrances to the shrine, each a hideous pair of gigantic fanged baboon heads carved into a small hill. Their gaping maws reveal two caves that lead into darkness. Taking the right passage, the party discovers a bloody handprint. When the cavern dead ends, they find a message in Olman. "No way out. The jungle is pain and suffering. Maybe it will end soon and the spirit of the Hawk will take me aloft from this accursed place. I beg him to take me away before I am gragged to the altar of the two-faced one. There is no way out."
Eventually the party discovers a pair of tarnished bronze doors, which are opened by blooding someones right and left hand then pulling on the doors. Inside is bizzare shrine. While the party examines the shrine, Rudy wanders off and discovers another trap, resulting in an avalance of stone on his thick skull. Z and Kongu manage to dig him out after a while. After several attempt at experimenting with the ritual of the duality, the party opens a mysterious portal.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria
Session Loot: [none]
A small trail lead to an old ruin. There in the ruins, an old corpse strung upside-down on a crossed pair of logs in an "X" pattern. As the party approaches and examines the body, the zombie speaks. "Welcome to my home, travelers. You come a long way to stay here forever. At least you live. That is good for now. My home is your home now and forever." Vin summons divine energy to turn the vile creature and obliterated it into smoking ash.
Attempts to explore the jungle further are in vain, as all attempts return the party into the ruins. Trapped, the party tries other options to find its way out. Demonic apes assault the adventurers and with darkness and teleportation cause quite a bit of trouble. A few people are scattered and missing. A bit of divination reveals the location of a hidden shrine near the ruins and the party makes a direct line there.
There are two entrances to the shrine, each a hideous pair of gigantic fanged baboon heads carved into a small hill. Their gaping maws reveal two caves that lead into darkness. Taking the right passage, the party discovers a bloody handprint. When the cavern dead ends, they find a message in Olman. "No way out. The jungle is pain and suffering. Maybe it will end soon and the spirit of the Hawk will take me aloft from this accursed place. I beg him to take me away before I am gragged to the altar of the two-faced one. There is no way out."
Eventually the party discovers a pair of tarnished bronze doors, which are opened by blooding someones right and left hand then pulling on the doors. Inside is bizzare shrine. While the party examines the shrine, Rudy wanders off and discovers another trap, resulting in an avalance of stone on his thick skull. Z and Kongu manage to dig him out after a while. After several attempt at experimenting with the ritual of the duality, the party opens a mysterious portal.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria
Session Loot: [none]
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
Sometimes it’s just your day.
After we left the labyrinth of losers, we began following an old road that ran long the seaside cliff. The first night that we stopped, I heard some noises out in the woodline during my watch shift. I ran to investigate and see just who needed a killing but I didn’t see anyone. The next morning, I told Nesta what had happened. Although she searched the area for any evidence of intruders, she found nothing. But, she’s probably still obsessing over her new drow tattoo. Heh heh heh…
Anyway the next night we heard the same crap again and when we awoke, our camp was surrounded by bird corpses mounted on weird stick forms, hanging from trees. Again, Nesta was completely perplexed.
As we made our way along the road that evening, humanoid skulls struck a few members of the party, myself included. Ortho summoned up two dogs to sniff out the outsiders but they couldn’t seem to locate our tormenters. Finally, someone, Daria I think, looked up to see an area of blackness above us. Ortho launched a lightning bolt into the area and the darkness left.
Next day, we came to sort of basket, pulley, rope system that was used to carry stuff up to the next level of the trail. It was just a smidge too tough for yours truly to work reliably by myself but I found that I could do it easily when Gwendolyn was singing.
The song only lasted long enough for me to transport two folks. Kongu and Vin went first. I made the case that if there was something nasty up top, those two would be most able to handle themselves until the rest of the party got there. Really, I just thought it would be nice to get away from Vin for a couple of minutes.
Gwendolyn rested for a moment and then launched into another song. This song kinda sucked but I guess they can’t all be winners. Besides, Gwendolyn’s worst song is better than Vin’s best sermon. Ortho went third and Nesta went fourth.
Gwendolyn and Daria went fifth and sixth. Those two were so light that I didn’t need a song. Finally, I enjoyed a too-brief moment of peace and quiet before I stepped into the gondola and Kongu brought me up. I must confess. I half considered cutting the rope and taking off in the other direction. At the top of the next cliff, we found an abandoned village – but nothing or nobody was there.
That night, on guard duty I hung my magic beer mug upside down in the tree nearest Ortho and carved the command word into the trunk. When the party got up and moving the next morning, I pointed to the tree trunk graffiti and said, “Oh no! What’s that?” Ortho regarded the writing for a moment and then read it aloud.
Sploosh! Ortho got a pint of smelly beer dumped on top of his head! I rolled around on the ground laughing. Ortho just muttered something about simple minds - simple pleasures.
Early in the afternoon, we got ambushed by a group of winged goons. They began by swooping down from a higher cliff and trying to knock us off of the cliff into the ocean below. Although these goons were humanoid in shape, they had wings and a tough, stony hide. The goons bit, clawed, and gored like wild beasts but we gradually got the upper hand in the battle.
During the battle, I noticed three things. One, some of our weapons were not very effective at piercing the hides of those goons. Two, Kongu and Vin sometimes use a fighting style that utilizes reckless strikes for either devastating hits or spectacular misses. Three, it seems that Kongu prefers spectacular misses.
As you may remember, I always carry a dagger in my boot just in case. It’s not much - but it’s better than nothing. When we had fought the gang of goons down to their last goon, I was on the other side of the battlefield. I knew that the goon would be dead before I could run to his position and I really wanted to get a piece of him. In desperation, I drew my dagger and threw it sixty feet through the mass melee of fighting bodies. The dagger hit the goon in the head and he dropped.
I was as freaking surprised as anyone there but I didn’t let it show. I swaggered up the goon’s inert corpse and retrieved my dagger, rhetorically asking if I must do everything around here. Oddly, I didn’t see where my dagger did any damage that would have killed a goon that tough. I guess I must have scared him to death.
Ortho found strange markings on the goons and although he was unable to decipher any meaning, he pronounced them to be gargoyles.
From getting Ortho with my beer trap to finishing off that goon with a one in a million shot, like I said - sometimes it’s just your day. Now, if could only get that crappy song of Gwendolyn’s out of my head.
-R
Sometimes it’s just your day.
After we left the labyrinth of losers, we began following an old road that ran long the seaside cliff. The first night that we stopped, I heard some noises out in the woodline during my watch shift. I ran to investigate and see just who needed a killing but I didn’t see anyone. The next morning, I told Nesta what had happened. Although she searched the area for any evidence of intruders, she found nothing. But, she’s probably still obsessing over her new drow tattoo. Heh heh heh…
Anyway the next night we heard the same crap again and when we awoke, our camp was surrounded by bird corpses mounted on weird stick forms, hanging from trees. Again, Nesta was completely perplexed.
As we made our way along the road that evening, humanoid skulls struck a few members of the party, myself included. Ortho summoned up two dogs to sniff out the outsiders but they couldn’t seem to locate our tormenters. Finally, someone, Daria I think, looked up to see an area of blackness above us. Ortho launched a lightning bolt into the area and the darkness left.
Next day, we came to sort of basket, pulley, rope system that was used to carry stuff up to the next level of the trail. It was just a smidge too tough for yours truly to work reliably by myself but I found that I could do it easily when Gwendolyn was singing.
The song only lasted long enough for me to transport two folks. Kongu and Vin went first. I made the case that if there was something nasty up top, those two would be most able to handle themselves until the rest of the party got there. Really, I just thought it would be nice to get away from Vin for a couple of minutes.
Gwendolyn rested for a moment and then launched into another song. This song kinda sucked but I guess they can’t all be winners. Besides, Gwendolyn’s worst song is better than Vin’s best sermon. Ortho went third and Nesta went fourth.
Gwendolyn and Daria went fifth and sixth. Those two were so light that I didn’t need a song. Finally, I enjoyed a too-brief moment of peace and quiet before I stepped into the gondola and Kongu brought me up. I must confess. I half considered cutting the rope and taking off in the other direction. At the top of the next cliff, we found an abandoned village – but nothing or nobody was there.
That night, on guard duty I hung my magic beer mug upside down in the tree nearest Ortho and carved the command word into the trunk. When the party got up and moving the next morning, I pointed to the tree trunk graffiti and said, “Oh no! What’s that?” Ortho regarded the writing for a moment and then read it aloud.
Sploosh! Ortho got a pint of smelly beer dumped on top of his head! I rolled around on the ground laughing. Ortho just muttered something about simple minds - simple pleasures.
Early in the afternoon, we got ambushed by a group of winged goons. They began by swooping down from a higher cliff and trying to knock us off of the cliff into the ocean below. Although these goons were humanoid in shape, they had wings and a tough, stony hide. The goons bit, clawed, and gored like wild beasts but we gradually got the upper hand in the battle.
During the battle, I noticed three things. One, some of our weapons were not very effective at piercing the hides of those goons. Two, Kongu and Vin sometimes use a fighting style that utilizes reckless strikes for either devastating hits or spectacular misses. Three, it seems that Kongu prefers spectacular misses.
As you may remember, I always carry a dagger in my boot just in case. It’s not much - but it’s better than nothing. When we had fought the gang of goons down to their last goon, I was on the other side of the battlefield. I knew that the goon would be dead before I could run to his position and I really wanted to get a piece of him. In desperation, I drew my dagger and threw it sixty feet through the mass melee of fighting bodies. The dagger hit the goon in the head and he dropped.
I was as freaking surprised as anyone there but I didn’t let it show. I swaggered up the goon’s inert corpse and retrieved my dagger, rhetorically asking if I must do everything around here. Oddly, I didn’t see where my dagger did any damage that would have killed a goon that tough. I guess I must have scared him to death.
Ortho found strange markings on the goons and although he was unable to decipher any meaning, he pronounced them to be gargoyles.
From getting Ortho with my beer trap to finishing off that goon with a one in a million shot, like I said - sometimes it’s just your day. Now, if could only get that crappy song of Gwendolyn’s out of my head.
-R
Monday, November 12, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
Sometimes it’s just not your day.
As we continued up the road, Nesta and Ortho mentioned that it looked like lightening storms were headed our way. I thought that they had both lost their minds but hey, Nesta IS a ranger and Ortho IS the elemental expert so maybe they knew something that I didn’t.
Once again, we were assaulted by gargoyles. This time however, a big, mean gargoyle got the drop on me and I was knocked off the side of the cliff to wait out the battle treading water below.
It sounded like I missed out on some good fun. I heard the usual sounds of swords and shields but at one point I saw the bright flash of light on cliff trail and heard Daria yell, “Whoo-Hooo!” Daria was later pushed off of the cliff herself.
After I had completely missed the battle, some crazy bird-horse thing came flying down from the cliff coming right at me. As I prepared to kill it, I heard Ortho yelling at me to grab its legs. That thing managed to carry me back to the mountain trail – then Daria.
Once again, the losers had no loot - but I did hear that, back with the second team, Z found a kobold.
As if things weren’t freaking bad enough, that evening I had to lay out all of my wet gear and clothing to dry. Vin loaned me a cloak to keep me warm as I slept up in a tree. Wouldn’t you know it – my tree got struck by lightening as I slept. That was a rude awakening and it hurt like hell! I guess Nesta and Ortho were right about those lightening storms.
Like I said – sometimes it’s just not your day.
-R
Sometimes it’s just not your day.
As we continued up the road, Nesta and Ortho mentioned that it looked like lightening storms were headed our way. I thought that they had both lost their minds but hey, Nesta IS a ranger and Ortho IS the elemental expert so maybe they knew something that I didn’t.
Once again, we were assaulted by gargoyles. This time however, a big, mean gargoyle got the drop on me and I was knocked off the side of the cliff to wait out the battle treading water below.
It sounded like I missed out on some good fun. I heard the usual sounds of swords and shields but at one point I saw the bright flash of light on cliff trail and heard Daria yell, “Whoo-Hooo!” Daria was later pushed off of the cliff herself.
After I had completely missed the battle, some crazy bird-horse thing came flying down from the cliff coming right at me. As I prepared to kill it, I heard Ortho yelling at me to grab its legs. That thing managed to carry me back to the mountain trail – then Daria.
Once again, the losers had no loot - but I did hear that, back with the second team, Z found a kobold.
As if things weren’t freaking bad enough, that evening I had to lay out all of my wet gear and clothing to dry. Vin loaned me a cloak to keep me warm as I slept up in a tree. Wouldn’t you know it – my tree got struck by lightening as I slept. That was a rude awakening and it hurt like hell! I guess Nesta and Ortho were right about those lightening storms.
Like I said – sometimes it’s just not your day.
-R
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Falling for you [updated]
Pursuing the Drow deeper into the mountain, the party heads out of the dragon's room and into another trapped hallway. Kongu springs the trap and the next room reveals the Drow are a truly treacherous lot. Face down on the ground, a Drow, apparently killed by one of his own. The room is searched. On the body, Nesta finds a strange note. The rumbling in the distance turns out to be the collapsing ceiling. The Drow have ended the party's pursuit.
Returning to the beach in the mountain pass, the party follows and ancient road through the mountains along the coastline. Strange events plague the party during the evenings on the road. Shadows in the evening, birds staked out on wooden crosses, and human skulls being flung from darkness above, all events that harass the party.
On the road the party encounters two groups of gargoyles with odd markings. The first the party defeats with relative ease. The second is championed by a viscous brute that gives Rudopho a run for his money. The brute and his crew manage to bump a couple of party members over the edge of the cliff into the water below. The Vin and Kongu fight to the end, as Vin crumples a bit.
The party has two more days on this trecherous trail.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: bracers of armor +2, gargoyle crown, 10 gold rings (50 gp each), drow short sword +1, drow elven chainmail +1
Gargoyle Crown: 1/day [free action to activate] DR/5 adamantine for 10 minutes, and 1/day smite attack [+4 attack and damage] vs creatures touching earth or stone [must declare prior to action]. 14000gp, 4lbs.
Returning to the beach in the mountain pass, the party follows and ancient road through the mountains along the coastline. Strange events plague the party during the evenings on the road. Shadows in the evening, birds staked out on wooden crosses, and human skulls being flung from darkness above, all events that harass the party.
On the road the party encounters two groups of gargoyles with odd markings. The first the party defeats with relative ease. The second is championed by a viscous brute that gives Rudopho a run for his money. The brute and his crew manage to bump a couple of party members over the edge of the cliff into the water below. The Vin and Kongu fight to the end, as Vin crumples a bit.
The party has two more days on this trecherous trail.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: bracers of armor +2, gargoyle crown, 10 gold rings (50 gp each), drow short sword +1, drow elven chainmail +1
Gargoyle Crown: 1/day [free action to activate] DR/5 adamantine for 10 minutes, and 1/day smite attack [+4 attack and damage] vs creatures touching earth or stone [must declare prior to action]. 14000gp, 4lbs.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
XP Standings
Level 7: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Daria, Kongu, Z
Level 6: Newt, Chiri, Ortho, Spanky, Druugen, Gwendely
Level 5: Medea
Ortho is within extra-credit range of advancing. Spanky and Druugen have advanced to level 6.
Level 6: Newt, Chiri, Ortho, Spanky, Druugen, Gwendely
Level 5: Medea
Ortho is within extra-credit range of advancing. Spanky and Druugen have advanced to level 6.
Monday, October 29, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
I am forced to add to the list of people that I must kill.
By the time we had rested up from our last battle, I had had about enough. I made up my mind I was not going to rest or retreat until the all of the drow in the caverns were dead.
While the big brains prepared spells and prayed and all that crap, Daria went on a recon mission. It was a good idea but, unfortunately, she didn’t find the drow. She did find a trap though. Daria came back to camp to report the trap and told everyone that she needed time to recover the poisoned needles.
On hearing this I worked myself up into a rage and ran into the hall. Thip thip thip. Three arrows fired at me. I parried one, one glanced off of my shirt and one hit me. I could feel the poison trying to wear me down but I was too pissed off.
I ran another five feet. Thip thip thip. Another damn trap. One arrow completely missed, I parried one, and one hit. It also was poisoned but I shrugged it off. My magic ass beer is more potent than that loser poison!
I turned the corner and ran down the second short hall to another corner and Thip thip thip. I got hit twice more and parried a third. Of course, I stayed on my feet. Five feet past the corner a pit trap opened under my feet but I avoided it. I ran to the end of this hall, still ready to kill drow when I turned the corner to see a double door.
Dammit! I wanted to kill! I burst through the doors and my prayers were answered. Losers! The two of them weren’t drow but I didn’t mind to kill them anyway.
They must have been ready for me because they got the drop on me. Oh well. We started fighting and I offered to spare one of them for Daria to interrogate but neither of them took me up on my offer – or they didn’t understand common. Hey, I tried right? Vin would have been proud.
Speaking of Vin, he was the next on the scene. And soon after, the room was packed with everyone trying to get a piece of my losers. Actually, these guys weren’t total losers; they hit pretty hard with their greataxes and could take a beating like Kongu.
Anyway, before too long we (mostly me) killed them and they turned into some 9-foot tall bull-headed losers! That explained a lot. It turns out that Nesta was being held in that room but I didn’t notice because I was concentrating on killing.
Nesta found that she had a new tattoo on her back and when Ortho checked, he found that he too had a tattoo. Boy, oh, boy! The looks on their faces was almost worth having to rescue them.
While everyone else looted the room and Daria inspected the far door, I back-tracked to inspect the pit that I almost fell into. While I was busy finding a crap-lot of nothing, I heard Kongo yelp a few times and I heard a rumble. Ortho later told me that Kongo fell into the same spiked pit trap three times. Har har har! Oh well, he’ll learn some day. Anyway while I was in the first pit, Daria opened the next door. I was alerted to this when I heard the party yelling and heard something BIG roar – followed by screaming. As I climbed out of the pit and ran to the battle, I could hear Daria repeatedly call out “It’s not real! It’s an illusion!” I certainly sounded real enough. Anyway, long story short, I got to battle my first dragon, and deliver the killing blow – but that goes without saying.
The next room contained only a single drow with a sword in his back. Man, that pissed my off. Whoever that guy was, I was supposed to kill him! To make matters worse, he had a note that said something about the tattoo bearers’ dimensional adventures. How freaking boring!
As we opened the far door in this room, we found out what the rumbling sound had been. The cowardly loser-elves had collapsed the cavern to cover their cowardly loser retreat. Hence, I added them to my list for future killing and we finally left the caverns. I just hope those drow know that it was I, Rudolpho Milano, that defeated them. Just to be sure that they know, I wrote my name on the wall of the last room. Maybe they’ll come looking for me one day.
Oh, yeah - Nesta says that Vin’s fulla crap. Vin claims to be a paladin of Farllangn crap! Ffarlanngh dammit! Fharlanghn but Nesta claims that Fharlanghn is a patron deity of travelers that cares nothing for holy crusades. Paladins are chosen by the godly powers of purity and justice. She mentioned Heironeous by name but added that with Vin being half-sea elf as he is, there is really no telling what god tapped him to be a paladin. Whatever Vin is, he’s not what he thinks he is. Heh heh heh!
Nesta says she knows all about Fharlanghn because she’s a ranger. She says that all travelers, including our little band, would do well to pay homage to Fharlanghn, and that he could help us get home and blah blah blah… She said some more crap but I had quit listening by then.
Out of all that mess with the drow, we got some neat loot but everyone seems afraid to wear the drow chain armor. I guess I’ll take it if Vin or Nesta doesn’t want it.
-R
I am forced to add to the list of people that I must kill.
By the time we had rested up from our last battle, I had had about enough. I made up my mind I was not going to rest or retreat until the all of the drow in the caverns were dead.
While the big brains prepared spells and prayed and all that crap, Daria went on a recon mission. It was a good idea but, unfortunately, she didn’t find the drow. She did find a trap though. Daria came back to camp to report the trap and told everyone that she needed time to recover the poisoned needles.
On hearing this I worked myself up into a rage and ran into the hall. Thip thip thip. Three arrows fired at me. I parried one, one glanced off of my shirt and one hit me. I could feel the poison trying to wear me down but I was too pissed off.
I ran another five feet. Thip thip thip. Another damn trap. One arrow completely missed, I parried one, and one hit. It also was poisoned but I shrugged it off. My magic ass beer is more potent than that loser poison!
I turned the corner and ran down the second short hall to another corner and Thip thip thip. I got hit twice more and parried a third. Of course, I stayed on my feet. Five feet past the corner a pit trap opened under my feet but I avoided it. I ran to the end of this hall, still ready to kill drow when I turned the corner to see a double door.
Dammit! I wanted to kill! I burst through the doors and my prayers were answered. Losers! The two of them weren’t drow but I didn’t mind to kill them anyway.
They must have been ready for me because they got the drop on me. Oh well. We started fighting and I offered to spare one of them for Daria to interrogate but neither of them took me up on my offer – or they didn’t understand common. Hey, I tried right? Vin would have been proud.
Speaking of Vin, he was the next on the scene. And soon after, the room was packed with everyone trying to get a piece of my losers. Actually, these guys weren’t total losers; they hit pretty hard with their greataxes and could take a beating like Kongu.
Anyway, before too long we (mostly me) killed them and they turned into some 9-foot tall bull-headed losers! That explained a lot. It turns out that Nesta was being held in that room but I didn’t notice because I was concentrating on killing.
Nesta found that she had a new tattoo on her back and when Ortho checked, he found that he too had a tattoo. Boy, oh, boy! The looks on their faces was almost worth having to rescue them.
While everyone else looted the room and Daria inspected the far door, I back-tracked to inspect the pit that I almost fell into. While I was busy finding a crap-lot of nothing, I heard Kongo yelp a few times and I heard a rumble. Ortho later told me that Kongo fell into the same spiked pit trap three times. Har har har! Oh well, he’ll learn some day. Anyway while I was in the first pit, Daria opened the next door. I was alerted to this when I heard the party yelling and heard something BIG roar – followed by screaming. As I climbed out of the pit and ran to the battle, I could hear Daria repeatedly call out “It’s not real! It’s an illusion!” I certainly sounded real enough. Anyway, long story short, I got to battle my first dragon, and deliver the killing blow – but that goes without saying.
The next room contained only a single drow with a sword in his back. Man, that pissed my off. Whoever that guy was, I was supposed to kill him! To make matters worse, he had a note that said something about the tattoo bearers’ dimensional adventures. How freaking boring!
As we opened the far door in this room, we found out what the rumbling sound had been. The cowardly loser-elves had collapsed the cavern to cover their cowardly loser retreat. Hence, I added them to my list for future killing and we finally left the caverns. I just hope those drow know that it was I, Rudolpho Milano, that defeated them. Just to be sure that they know, I wrote my name on the wall of the last room. Maybe they’ll come looking for me one day.
Oh, yeah - Nesta says that Vin’s fulla crap. Vin claims to be a paladin of Farllangn crap! Ffarlanngh dammit! Fharlanghn but Nesta claims that Fharlanghn is a patron deity of travelers that cares nothing for holy crusades. Paladins are chosen by the godly powers of purity and justice. She mentioned Heironeous by name but added that with Vin being half-sea elf as he is, there is really no telling what god tapped him to be a paladin. Whatever Vin is, he’s not what he thinks he is. Heh heh heh!
Nesta says she knows all about Fharlanghn because she’s a ranger. She says that all travelers, including our little band, would do well to pay homage to Fharlanghn, and that he could help us get home and blah blah blah… She said some more crap but I had quit listening by then.
Out of all that mess with the drow, we got some neat loot but everyone seems afraid to wear the drow chain armor. I guess I’ll take it if Vin or Nesta doesn’t want it.
-R
Sunday, October 28, 2007
That's not a REAL dragon...
The party quickly regroups and resumes their pursuit of the Drow, and to find Nesta. This, in spite of several 'Let's just leave now.' motions.
Into the far passageway, the natural cavern gives way to a worked passage way. It weaves back and forth. Ever cautious, the party sends Daria out to search for more Drow surprises. After discovering a few dart traps and a pit, the party arrives at a door.
Once into the room, two very tough-looking bugbears are guarding an upside-down, bound, and unconscious Nesta. The bugbears put up quite a fight, but when they fall their forms morph into something closer to a troll. Nesta comes around, and the group notices a strange tattoo on Nesta's back. Ortho, apparently, has one too. The party regroups again, and travels through a short hall.
The door beyond reveals a large room with an adult black dragon. Daria is not willing to fall for the Drow trickery again, and disbelieves what is an obvious illusion. The party takes an old school beating, several members taking their turns in the unconscious brigade. In the end, the party is victorious.
Daria waits patiently for the "dragon" body to morph into its real form.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: two strange tattoos, one on Ortho, one on Nesta.
Into the far passageway, the natural cavern gives way to a worked passage way. It weaves back and forth. Ever cautious, the party sends Daria out to search for more Drow surprises. After discovering a few dart traps and a pit, the party arrives at a door.
Once into the room, two very tough-looking bugbears are guarding an upside-down, bound, and unconscious Nesta. The bugbears put up quite a fight, but when they fall their forms morph into something closer to a troll. Nesta comes around, and the group notices a strange tattoo on Nesta's back. Ortho, apparently, has one too. The party regroups again, and travels through a short hall.
The door beyond reveals a large room with an adult black dragon. Daria is not willing to fall for the Drow trickery again, and disbelieves what is an obvious illusion. The party takes an old school beating, several members taking their turns in the unconscious brigade. In the end, the party is victorious.
Daria waits patiently for the "dragon" body to morph into its real form.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: two strange tattoos, one on Ortho, one on Nesta.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
Some people just can’t tell a joke right.
I found out that our new gnome’s name is Gwendolin or some such crap and that she is, by profession, a bard. I tried to share my favorite joke with her. I gave her permission to use it as part of her act but she didn’t seem to understand it. I had her say the joke back to my but it just didn’t sound right. Like I said some people just can’t tell a joke.
Anyway, I was proud because I had thought up the joke myself and had told it for years around ports in Sasserine. Here it is:
“Why did the druid fall down? Because I killed him!”
Ha ha ha! That’s funny stuff if I say so myself. It cracks me up just telling it.
Yesterday we found an ancient tomb where we battled some undead losers that gave me a case of the sandy coughs again. Throughout the battle, I kept hearing Vin yammering his holy rebuke of the undead. Moments later, the mummies would seem to get a minor gas pain or something but it didn’t seem to cause them any major hurt.
Luckily, Z cured me of the sandy disease before it progressed to the point where I piss sand. I know; I checked.
I almost forgot! We also fought some giant bugs at the entrance to the tomb. I got poisoned or some shit. It made me feel crappy for a while but I got over it like I always do.
Of course, we beat the losers and got some nice loot. You know - it’s nice to have all of this loot but it’s not doing anyone a damn bit of good with nowhere to sell stuff or spend money. I hope we find some real civilization soon so I can buy some new gear, have my falchion upgraded to new levels of magic power or just try to pick up the trail of me own sweet pa again. Maybe there are some primitives or even some savages on this island that we could trade with.
Some of the big brains in the party figured out how to use two staves that we had found to gain entry to secret treasure rooms and an outside exit. We also found an entrance to a lower level. We’re going to venture down there tomorrow. I wonder what we’ll find.
-R
Some people just can’t tell a joke right.
I found out that our new gnome’s name is Gwendolin or some such crap and that she is, by profession, a bard. I tried to share my favorite joke with her. I gave her permission to use it as part of her act but she didn’t seem to understand it. I had her say the joke back to my but it just didn’t sound right. Like I said some people just can’t tell a joke.
Anyway, I was proud because I had thought up the joke myself and had told it for years around ports in Sasserine. Here it is:
“Why did the druid fall down? Because I killed him!”
Ha ha ha! That’s funny stuff if I say so myself. It cracks me up just telling it.
Yesterday we found an ancient tomb where we battled some undead losers that gave me a case of the sandy coughs again. Throughout the battle, I kept hearing Vin yammering his holy rebuke of the undead. Moments later, the mummies would seem to get a minor gas pain or something but it didn’t seem to cause them any major hurt.
Luckily, Z cured me of the sandy disease before it progressed to the point where I piss sand. I know; I checked.
I almost forgot! We also fought some giant bugs at the entrance to the tomb. I got poisoned or some shit. It made me feel crappy for a while but I got over it like I always do.
Of course, we beat the losers and got some nice loot. You know - it’s nice to have all of this loot but it’s not doing anyone a damn bit of good with nowhere to sell stuff or spend money. I hope we find some real civilization soon so I can buy some new gear, have my falchion upgraded to new levels of magic power or just try to pick up the trail of me own sweet pa again. Maybe there are some primitives or even some savages on this island that we could trade with.
Some of the big brains in the party figured out how to use two staves that we had found to gain entry to secret treasure rooms and an outside exit. We also found an entrance to a lower level. We’re going to venture down there tomorrow. I wonder what we’ll find.
-R
Monday, October 15, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
I hate birds.
As we trekked through the jungle following a trail south we came across some big reptile being accosted by ugly, flightless birds. Because they we in our path, we killed a couple of the birds and ran the rest off. The big reptile also lumbered off. Silly birds. That’ll teach them to get in our way. I wanted to go ahead and stalk down the big lizard-thingy to kill it but I was out-voted.
That night, we dined on bird.
The next day, we traveled on down the trail (still following Nesta despite my objections). We ran into some boring ruins and just as I was preparing to relieve myself on some stonework we ran into a crusty old woman on a web-covered stone throne. I heard someone muttering “You gotta be shittin’ me.” Then, I realized that it was yours truly that said it. I then, of course, drew my falchion and prepared to let the old broad have it when all of a sudden, our new gnome stepped right in my way and starts talking some gobble-de-gook to the old broad. Talking? What kind of adventure group did I join anyway?
I don’t know what they said and no one can tell me - but the short version of the story is that we just left the old woman there and went about our merry way. I wasn’t so merry though. I kept trying to convince someone that there must have been some loot to be found in those old ruins – but, as usual, nobody would listen to me. Nesta kept leading the way down the trail and our new gnome kept jabbering about ‘beware the terror birds’.
I harbored not-so-secret thoughts of doubling back and beating on that old gasbag until she gave up the treasure but I soon occupied myself with my new favorite pastime – swatting flies. Yep, I figure I caught about 20 flies that day and killed 30 more. I kept the live flies in a small sack. True, it’s not very exciting but it keeps me from killing crew members.
Anyway, I was trying to convince Daria to sneak my live flies into Vin’s helmet the next time that we stopped to rest when we came to a cliff. Everyone seemed puzzled as to the next move to make and I was like “Duh! Can we climb now?” Anyway, about the time I got to the bottom of the cliff, we were set upon by those stupid birds.
Luckily for him, Kongu had followed me down the cliff and the two of us faced off against three birds. I couldn’t see what was going on up top but from the squawking and yelling I figured that the rest of the gang was in a similar situation.
Almost immediately, Vin plummeted head-first from the cliff top to the ground below. I swear I think that he deliberately jumped. I figured him for dead but, always the hero, Vin stumbled to his feet, straightened his helmet, and started swinging wildly at one of the two remaining birds. Once again Kongu showed his remarkable talent to take a beating that no living being could ever walk away from. I had no idea what was going on up top except that a stray arrow flew overhead in a direction seemingly unrelated to any target.
Did I mention that one of those birds was about eight times as big as the others? That’s the one that yours truly was fighting while Vin was stumbling around like a drunken sailor and Kongu was doing his best imitation of a pile of kindling.
It took me a while but I finally killed big mama-bird when I spun around to try to salvage what was left of the blue boy. Surprisingly, Vin was still standing on his wobbly legs and, judging from the blood and feathers covering him, seemed to have gotten in a couple of lucky shots. I ran over to deliver the killing blow - to the bird.
The battle was still raging up top so I jumped up on top of the hay-bail-sized nest to try to find a target I could hit with my bow. I could just barely make out the head and neck of one of the birds so I took a shot. I’m pretty sure I missed but I don’t think it mattered anyway because just about then a saw a blinding band of lightning streak through the air just feet from my head.
For a few seconds, all my hair stood on end and I heard this weird humming in my skull. Something smelled burnt for a moment as my eyes readjusted and then it was over. I heard Daria yell, “You had a LIGHTNING BOLT?” I guess she was yelling at Ortho.
After the battle, some of the guys started running around gingerly collecting the giant eggs from the giant nests and carefully packing them into their rucks. I was casually wiping busted eggshell and goo off of my boots when Daria informed me that I had just put a 1500 gold piece shine on my boots.
Oh well.
-R
I hate birds.
As we trekked through the jungle following a trail south we came across some big reptile being accosted by ugly, flightless birds. Because they we in our path, we killed a couple of the birds and ran the rest off. The big reptile also lumbered off. Silly birds. That’ll teach them to get in our way. I wanted to go ahead and stalk down the big lizard-thingy to kill it but I was out-voted.
That night, we dined on bird.
The next day, we traveled on down the trail (still following Nesta despite my objections). We ran into some boring ruins and just as I was preparing to relieve myself on some stonework we ran into a crusty old woman on a web-covered stone throne. I heard someone muttering “You gotta be shittin’ me.” Then, I realized that it was yours truly that said it. I then, of course, drew my falchion and prepared to let the old broad have it when all of a sudden, our new gnome stepped right in my way and starts talking some gobble-de-gook to the old broad. Talking? What kind of adventure group did I join anyway?
I don’t know what they said and no one can tell me - but the short version of the story is that we just left the old woman there and went about our merry way. I wasn’t so merry though. I kept trying to convince someone that there must have been some loot to be found in those old ruins – but, as usual, nobody would listen to me. Nesta kept leading the way down the trail and our new gnome kept jabbering about ‘beware the terror birds’.
I harbored not-so-secret thoughts of doubling back and beating on that old gasbag until she gave up the treasure but I soon occupied myself with my new favorite pastime – swatting flies. Yep, I figure I caught about 20 flies that day and killed 30 more. I kept the live flies in a small sack. True, it’s not very exciting but it keeps me from killing crew members.
Anyway, I was trying to convince Daria to sneak my live flies into Vin’s helmet the next time that we stopped to rest when we came to a cliff. Everyone seemed puzzled as to the next move to make and I was like “Duh! Can we climb now?” Anyway, about the time I got to the bottom of the cliff, we were set upon by those stupid birds.
Luckily for him, Kongu had followed me down the cliff and the two of us faced off against three birds. I couldn’t see what was going on up top but from the squawking and yelling I figured that the rest of the gang was in a similar situation.
Almost immediately, Vin plummeted head-first from the cliff top to the ground below. I swear I think that he deliberately jumped. I figured him for dead but, always the hero, Vin stumbled to his feet, straightened his helmet, and started swinging wildly at one of the two remaining birds. Once again Kongu showed his remarkable talent to take a beating that no living being could ever walk away from. I had no idea what was going on up top except that a stray arrow flew overhead in a direction seemingly unrelated to any target.
Did I mention that one of those birds was about eight times as big as the others? That’s the one that yours truly was fighting while Vin was stumbling around like a drunken sailor and Kongu was doing his best imitation of a pile of kindling.
It took me a while but I finally killed big mama-bird when I spun around to try to salvage what was left of the blue boy. Surprisingly, Vin was still standing on his wobbly legs and, judging from the blood and feathers covering him, seemed to have gotten in a couple of lucky shots. I ran over to deliver the killing blow - to the bird.
The battle was still raging up top so I jumped up on top of the hay-bail-sized nest to try to find a target I could hit with my bow. I could just barely make out the head and neck of one of the birds so I took a shot. I’m pretty sure I missed but I don’t think it mattered anyway because just about then a saw a blinding band of lightning streak through the air just feet from my head.
For a few seconds, all my hair stood on end and I heard this weird humming in my skull. Something smelled burnt for a moment as my eyes readjusted and then it was over. I heard Daria yell, “You had a LIGHTNING BOLT?” I guess she was yelling at Ortho.
After the battle, some of the guys started running around gingerly collecting the giant eggs from the giant nests and carefully packing them into their rucks. I was casually wiping busted eggshell and goo off of my boots when Daria informed me that I had just put a 1500 gold piece shine on my boots.
Oh well.
-R
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
XP Standings
Level 7: Rudolpho, Nesta, Vin, Z, Kongu, Daria
Level 6: Ortho, Chiri, Newt, Gwendely
Level 5: Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Kongu and Daria are now level 7. Chiri is now level 6. As usual, content contributions are worth XP.
Level 6: Ortho, Chiri, Newt, Gwendely
Level 5: Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Kongu and Daria are now level 7. Chiri is now level 6. As usual, content contributions are worth XP.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lights, Camera... Where is Ortho?
The party withdraws to the first cavern to rest and regroup. The watches were set, and all was quiet. But in the morning, Ortho is missing. Daria denys everything, and even proposes that he may have been a plant all along. Taunted by the missing party member the group resumes their exploration of the caverns.
Slowly, the party inches it way, searching and listening every step. No signs of the Drow are present. Around the bend, the passageway opens into another large cavern. Bugbears and Trolls are ready, they must have been alerted by the sounds of combat. The party is a bit more prepared, and slowly emerge into the next cavern, deliberately engaging the minions of the Drow.
The bugbears and troll hold the line for a few rounds. The Drow support their combatants from a distance. The bugbear line begins to crumble as Rudolpho, Vin, and Kongu wade their way into the melee. As a flank opens, Daria moves around and peeks into the doors of some of the buildings in the cavern.
Ortho is there in the building, gagged, bound, and hanging upside down. The sound of combat must have helped him regain consciousness, as he managed to struggle free just as Daria arrived to 'help'.
Daria's next exploration discovered a room full of treasure, but it also set off the trap... 12 bugbear zombies hiding behind an illusionary wall. Fortunately, the original combat was winding down as the second front opened. The Drow increased their harassment of the party, continuing to create zones of darkness. As the party deals with the undead assault, Nesta searches for signs of the Drow. She works her way back through the darkness, back into the original passage way. Nesta feels a tingle, then is unable to move, then... nothing.
The party is victorious, and finds a nifty pile of the shiny shiny. Nesta is nowhere to be found...
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: 1400 sp, 1000 gp, 40 hand crossbow bolts, 3 vials of cure serious wounds, 3 vials of neutralize poison, 2 vials of lesser restoration, 2 vials of drow sleepy time formula, a wand of repair light damage (50 charges), and scrolls with 7 spells.
Slowly, the party inches it way, searching and listening every step. No signs of the Drow are present. Around the bend, the passageway opens into another large cavern. Bugbears and Trolls are ready, they must have been alerted by the sounds of combat. The party is a bit more prepared, and slowly emerge into the next cavern, deliberately engaging the minions of the Drow.
The bugbears and troll hold the line for a few rounds. The Drow support their combatants from a distance. The bugbear line begins to crumble as Rudolpho, Vin, and Kongu wade their way into the melee. As a flank opens, Daria moves around and peeks into the doors of some of the buildings in the cavern.
Ortho is there in the building, gagged, bound, and hanging upside down. The sound of combat must have helped him regain consciousness, as he managed to struggle free just as Daria arrived to 'help'.
Daria's next exploration discovered a room full of treasure, but it also set off the trap... 12 bugbear zombies hiding behind an illusionary wall. Fortunately, the original combat was winding down as the second front opened. The Drow increased their harassment of the party, continuing to create zones of darkness. As the party deals with the undead assault, Nesta searches for signs of the Drow. She works her way back through the darkness, back into the original passage way. Nesta feels a tingle, then is unable to move, then... nothing.
The party is victorious, and finds a nifty pile of the shiny shiny. Nesta is nowhere to be found...
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: 1400 sp, 1000 gp, 40 hand crossbow bolts, 3 vials of cure serious wounds, 3 vials of neutralize poison, 2 vials of lesser restoration, 2 vials of drow sleepy time formula, a wand of repair light damage (50 charges), and scrolls with 7 spells.
Monday, September 17, 2007
XP Standings
Level 7: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Z
Level 6: Newt, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Kongu, Daria
Level 5: Chiri, Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Kongu, Daria, and Chiri are within 'extra credit' range of leveling up.
Erin pending PC sheet and revised history
XP awards still available for:
updated character sheets
red shirt character creations (see DM)
character backgrounds
NPC stat blocks (see DM)
OGGoO blog posts, e.g. Ruddy's Diary, Vin's Letter, Captain's Log
Level 6: Newt, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Kongu, Daria
Level 5: Chiri, Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Kongu, Daria, and Chiri are within 'extra credit' range of leveling up.
Erin pending PC sheet and revised history
XP awards still available for:
updated character sheets
red shirt character creations (see DM)
character backgrounds
NPC stat blocks (see DM)
OGGoO blog posts, e.g. Ruddy's Diary, Vin's Letter, Captain's Log
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
I really hate drow.
That’s what those elves are – drow. Leastways that’s what Gwendolyn and Nesta say. Oh well, they look like elves to me. We can’t even agree how to pronounce the name. Does drow rhyme with hoe or wow?
After we rested, the party began the hunt for Ortho and the drow. Vin was wondering why the drow had let us go when they had us as right where they wanted us. What battle were you watching Vin? I told him that those losers had thrown everything that they had at us and we survived and were gaining the upper hand on the combat. They had simply exhausted their resources and had to retreat.
I felt pretty confident that we knew their tactics now and would have a much easier time killing the drow in the next battle but they did things a little differently the next time.
In addition to the same old darkness and web, the losers had an extra-shitty trap to spring. I got my wish and we engaged in another battle with the drow. It went much like the first but the drow brought in reinforcements in the form of a roomful of big, hairy zombies like the ones in those tunnels that Vanthus locked us up in.
During the battle, no drow were killed but Daria managed to rescue Ortho. Ortho claims to have escaped but we all know better - especially given the fact that Ortho later announced “Hey guys! I’ve got light in my spellbook!” ‘Bout time.
It looks like this time Nesta got nabbed, forcing us to follow the drow deeper into their lair. That’s fine with me. I want some payback. Everyone else seems really pissy about the whole deal.
Some of the party members claim that we are being led to our deaths. I try to tell them to take their doom & gloom and shove it. Everything that I learned as a pirate tells me that we have the upper hand. We have survived everything that they threw at us and we are driving them back as we destroy their ability to defend themselves. Why else would they bother to take living prisoners if not to bargain with later? So what if we lost an elf. We recovered an elf and we destroyed their zombie losers. I asked Vin if Vanthus could be behind any of this.
“We don’t even know if Vanthus is still alive”
“He’s still alive.”
“Rudolpho, how could you know that?”
“He’s not dead - because I haven’t killed him.”
-R
Sunday, September 16, 2007
One Bridge to Far...
The party, once again rested, resume their exploration of the dark passage under the peaks of the mountains. Just past the entrance, two bridges span a chasm offering a choice of exploration. As the party began to cross gargantuan centipedes crawl up from under the bridge looking for a tasty morsel. Never having faced such large adversaries, the party struggled for a bit, but ultimately found victory.
Passing to the other side the party stumbles into the lair of a black pudding. Despite the duplicating effect of the ooze, and it's ability to strip paladins completely naked, the party won out with the improvised stone weapons from the crumbling ceiling and the battered stone door. After a few giggles from some of the female party members, Vin reacquires his modesty in a borrowed suit of armor.
The party resumes exploration and discovers a crypt of ancient Olman priests. When the bones of their brothers are disturbed, three mummies rise from their graves and attack, defending the sacred resting place. Ruddy was always a mummy's boy, and was 'spoiled' by the attention. The combat leaves the party weakened, and they rest and regroup. And after a brief bout with crabs, the journey continues.
Kongu discovers a secret door, leading to a sarcophagus. After the trap is set off, the party discovers a lever that opens a passageway down into the caverns below. Entering the cavern Daria busies herself discovering, disarming, and attempting recovery of many poisoned dart traps. As the party moves down the passageway, darkness envelops the group, a few are painted with the purple outline that signifies a drow ambush. The darkness persists as the party moves toward their opponents. Soon the party is in a quagmire of webs, darkness, and danger. After a drow lightning bolt zaps the party conga line, the party begins to shuffle their tactics. Drow spells are hurled at the party, eventually paralyzing Ortho who couldn't remember that he could cast light. In the end, after suffering a couple of casualties, the drow withdraw and the party is left to regroup.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: 3 gold burial necklaces (500gp each), masterwork silver dagger, necklace (pink pearl of power, 3rd level).
Passing to the other side the party stumbles into the lair of a black pudding. Despite the duplicating effect of the ooze, and it's ability to strip paladins completely naked, the party won out with the improvised stone weapons from the crumbling ceiling and the battered stone door. After a few giggles from some of the female party members, Vin reacquires his modesty in a borrowed suit of armor.
The party resumes exploration and discovers a crypt of ancient Olman priests. When the bones of their brothers are disturbed, three mummies rise from their graves and attack, defending the sacred resting place. Ruddy was always a mummy's boy, and was 'spoiled' by the attention. The combat leaves the party weakened, and they rest and regroup. And after a brief bout with crabs, the journey continues.
Kongu discovers a secret door, leading to a sarcophagus. After the trap is set off, the party discovers a lever that opens a passageway down into the caverns below. Entering the cavern Daria busies herself discovering, disarming, and attempting recovery of many poisoned dart traps. As the party moves down the passageway, darkness envelops the group, a few are painted with the purple outline that signifies a drow ambush. The darkness persists as the party moves toward their opponents. Soon the party is in a quagmire of webs, darkness, and danger. After a drow lightning bolt zaps the party conga line, the party begins to shuffle their tactics. Drow spells are hurled at the party, eventually paralyzing Ortho who couldn't remember that he could cast light. In the end, after suffering a couple of casualties, the drow withdraw and the party is left to regroup.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Ortho, Gwendelyn, Daria, Vin, Nesta, Kongu
Session Loot: 3 gold burial necklaces (500gp each), masterwork silver dagger, necklace (pink pearl of power, 3rd level).
Sunday, September 2, 2007
All Ashore That's Going Ashore
It was a dark and stormy night...
The party has survived the shipwreck and the first encounter with the local fauna, but they are on the opposite side of the Isle of Dread and must make the long overland trek to Farshore. After two days of gathering supplies, the party head south on an animal trail. The hope is to find a pass in the mountains to the south.
Following an animal trail, Nesta guides the party through the jungle. The party encounters a young Diplodocus being chased by three large prehistoric carnivorous birds (terror birds). The terror birds try to chew on a few party members, but were unsuccessful. Dead, in fact. The Diplodocus flees as the party finishes off the last terror bird.
Further south, the party emerges from the jungle into the ruins of an ancient city. During the exploration of the ruins the party meets Lithira, the queen of the ruined Olman city. She had trouble communicating with the party at first. She asked questions about places far away from the Isle of Dread. She told a bit of history about the area, and suggested the "dark mountain pass that travels under the peaks". She also warned that unnatural things lurk in the dark places. "I know that four eyes have gaed upon you and their servant seeks you out. You would do well to avoid him." And with that, the dusty old lady wandered off and dissappeared.
Continuing the trek south, the party stumbles upon a group of nesting terror birds. Rudolpho rages and makes the charge. Vin takes a deep breath and leaps from the small cliff yelling "Bonzai", but lands on his face. The terror birds pick up their attack, and swarm Ruddy and Vin. A pair of terror birds climb the cliff and attack the other party members, keeping the group scattered. The combat was brutal, only made worse by Ortho's admission that he had forgotten one of his memorized spells. Lighting bolt. After the party recovered from the terror bird combat, everyone pummeled Ortho.
The party arrives at the entrance to the pass and explores the entrance. A fragment of a skeleton is pinned to a stone throne by a spear. A couple of baubles were discovered in a pool. What horrible dark dangers lie ahead?
==========
Session Characters: Ortho, Kongu, Gwendelyn, Vin, Daria, Rudoldpho, Nesta
Session Loot: +1 longspear, red stone rod,
Daria Loot: gold necklace (500gp)
The party has survived the shipwreck and the first encounter with the local fauna, but they are on the opposite side of the Isle of Dread and must make the long overland trek to Farshore. After two days of gathering supplies, the party head south on an animal trail. The hope is to find a pass in the mountains to the south.
Following an animal trail, Nesta guides the party through the jungle. The party encounters a young Diplodocus being chased by three large prehistoric carnivorous birds (terror birds). The terror birds try to chew on a few party members, but were unsuccessful. Dead, in fact. The Diplodocus flees as the party finishes off the last terror bird.
Further south, the party emerges from the jungle into the ruins of an ancient city. During the exploration of the ruins the party meets Lithira, the queen of the ruined Olman city. She had trouble communicating with the party at first. She asked questions about places far away from the Isle of Dread. She told a bit of history about the area, and suggested the "dark mountain pass that travels under the peaks". She also warned that unnatural things lurk in the dark places. "I know that four eyes have gaed upon you and their servant seeks you out. You would do well to avoid him." And with that, the dusty old lady wandered off and dissappeared.
Continuing the trek south, the party stumbles upon a group of nesting terror birds. Rudolpho rages and makes the charge. Vin takes a deep breath and leaps from the small cliff yelling "Bonzai", but lands on his face. The terror birds pick up their attack, and swarm Ruddy and Vin. A pair of terror birds climb the cliff and attack the other party members, keeping the group scattered. The combat was brutal, only made worse by Ortho's admission that he had forgotten one of his memorized spells. Lighting bolt. After the party recovered from the terror bird combat, everyone pummeled Ortho.
The party arrives at the entrance to the pass and explores the entrance. A fragment of a skeleton is pinned to a stone throne by a spear. A couple of baubles were discovered in a pool. What horrible dark dangers lie ahead?
==========
Session Characters: Ortho, Kongu, Gwendelyn, Vin, Daria, Rudoldpho, Nesta
Session Loot: +1 longspear, red stone rod,
Daria Loot: gold necklace (500gp)
Sunday, August 19, 2007
GenCon 2007
Alas, no adventure this time. But a luck few have made the journey to Indianapolis to participate in the best 4 days in gaming.
When I get the chance I will post more notes and pictures.
When I get the chance I will post more notes and pictures.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Riders on the Storm
The party, rested and prepared, make their final assault into the belly of the Thunderer. Crashing through the hold the adventurers encounter the final guardian plant ghosts. Their ability to entangle and ensnare the party causes many problems. There in the deepest part of the Thunderer, a pit into what should be the ocean. The party begins a slow, treacherous climb down into the foul smelling hole of vegetation. At the bottom lurks a huge mass plant life, wreathed in smaller version of the plant-ghosts. At 20 feet tall, it begins to assault the party as soon as they are in reach. The party struggles in the battle, their feet entangled, biting baby plants, and the long arms of vines give little room for anyone to escape 'The Mother of All". Alas the group prevails and the Thunderer begins to sink into the sea. The swimmers find little treasure in the deep.
5 Days after the ship escapes the Journey's End, the dawn rises with the peaks of the Isle of Dread in sight. As the day progresses, a terrible storm rises. This one is much worse than the previous one, and the crew works feverishly to keep the ship going. With much effort, the Sea Wyvern stays afloat, but a giant wave casts it upon Masher Reef. With the arrival of activity in its territory, the eel-like Masher attacks the ship in the on-going storm. Quick action by the party, and the creature is defeated. Urol Forol dies in the crash, still entangled in his hammock.
After the reef takes its tool, the Sea Wyvern struggles to keep going. The storm pounds the ship until it finally gives way. The ocean storm continues through the night, and the party wakes on the shore of the island. The ship is aground, and will not sail without significant repairs. As the party begins to regroup, a giant prehistoric lizard springs onto the beach looking for a meal. Rudolpho volunteers and leaps valiantly into the mouth of the Tyrannosaur and the party eventually vanquishes the dread beast.
==========
Session Characters: Ortho, Daria, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Nesta
Session Loot: none.
5 Days after the ship escapes the Journey's End, the dawn rises with the peaks of the Isle of Dread in sight. As the day progresses, a terrible storm rises. This one is much worse than the previous one, and the crew works feverishly to keep the ship going. With much effort, the Sea Wyvern stays afloat, but a giant wave casts it upon Masher Reef. With the arrival of activity in its territory, the eel-like Masher attacks the ship in the on-going storm. Quick action by the party, and the creature is defeated. Urol Forol dies in the crash, still entangled in his hammock.
After the reef takes its tool, the Sea Wyvern struggles to keep going. The storm pounds the ship until it finally gives way. The ocean storm continues through the night, and the party wakes on the shore of the island. The ship is aground, and will not sail without significant repairs. As the party begins to regroup, a giant prehistoric lizard springs onto the beach looking for a meal. Rudolpho volunteers and leaps valiantly into the mouth of the Tyrannosaur and the party eventually vanquishes the dread beast.
==========
Session Characters: Ortho, Daria, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Nesta
Session Loot: none.
XP Standings
Level 6: Rudolpho, Vin, Nesta, Z
Level 5: Newt, Chiri, Daria, Kongu, Ortho
Level 4: Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Erin pending PC sheet and revised history
XP awards still available for:
updated character sheets
red shirt character creations (see DM)
character backgrounds
NPC stat blocks (see DM)
OGGoO blog posts, e.g. Ruddy's Diary, Vin's Letter, Captain's Log
Level 5: Newt, Chiri, Daria, Kongu, Ortho
Level 4: Spanky, Druugen, Medea
Erin pending PC sheet and revised history
XP awards still available for:
updated character sheets
red shirt character creations (see DM)
character backgrounds
NPC stat blocks (see DM)
OGGoO blog posts, e.g. Ruddy's Diary, Vin's Letter, Captain's Log
Monday, July 23, 2007
From the Diary of Vin Icemark
Lavinia Vanderboren
Vanderboren Estate, Sasserine
My Dearest Lavinia
I wanted to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to you for the many things you have done for me since the beginning of this voyage. The voyage has been difficult for me. The revelations about my heritage and the changes it brought, the constant squabbling on board the ship continually requiring a mediator, the dangers we have faced as well as the burden of the safety of the crew and passengers have taken much out of me.
I have been able to take great comfort in your company and find myself longing for your presence even now. I am continually amazed at your ability to refresh my weary spirit with a simple smile or your laugh. I truly look forward to spending much more time together once this journey is at an end.
I pray that you take comfort in the fact that the gifts you recently have entrusted to me will be used in enforcing the Justice of the Traveling God. The sword is the finest I have ever seen, and I am proud to carry the Vanderboren crest into the fray on my shield. It has already successfully protected me in battle! The sword will help me swiftly eliminate the evil before me on my quest to return to you. Saying I am grateful does not adequately express my gratitude.
Our ship is currently trapped in this Sargasso plague and I cannot say when I will see you gain. Faith tells me that we will quickly solve this distraction and resume our journey toward our destination and to you. For me, that day can not come too soon! A greater hand, however, sets our path, and places us where we are needed. Wherever I am, I look for ways to help and apply myself to my duty to you and the Traveling God until we are together again. That greater hand also placed us together at a time each of us needed, so I truly believe that is where I should be and I will be with you again in time.
That time feels as an eternity yet could seem as only a second once it has passed and I am with you once more. Until eternity passes and seems lost in a second of time, I await your presence….
Till I see you again
Your most humble and obedient servant
Vin IceMark
Paladin in service of the Traveling GodSunday, July 22, 2007
...Outsiders...
After more exploration, the party discovers that the Sargasso, known as 'The Journey's End' is alive. The vegetation is active, moving in some areas, and somewhere a creature called 'the Mother' lies at its heart.
The party is pressing frantically forward. The mists reduce visibility, and the distant moving forms remind everyone of the danger. Night falls unusually quick in the Sargasso, then the plant-ghosts make their move to drag the party into whatever hell they spawn. Faint whispers "...outsiders..." fill the mists.
The party discovers a change in the landscape. A mocking parody of nature, and in this area a ship not affected by the decay and rot . The Thunderer is a ship near the middle of the Sargasso, in reasonable shape, but deep into the flesh of seaweed. So deep in fact, it only rests 5 ft above the water line.
Inside the Thunderer, more foul plant-ghosts strike the party, calling forth the sargasso plants to strike out as well. The vines entangle everyone, making progress difficult. Can the party reach the mother in time? Or will the slow decay of the damp seaweed claim another prize?
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Z
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 1200 gp in a chest
The party is pressing frantically forward. The mists reduce visibility, and the distant moving forms remind everyone of the danger. Night falls unusually quick in the Sargasso, then the plant-ghosts make their move to drag the party into whatever hell they spawn. Faint whispers "...outsiders..." fill the mists.
The party discovers a change in the landscape. A mocking parody of nature, and in this area a ship not affected by the decay and rot . The Thunderer is a ship near the middle of the Sargasso, in reasonable shape, but deep into the flesh of seaweed. So deep in fact, it only rests 5 ft above the water line.
Inside the Thunderer, more foul plant-ghosts strike the party, calling forth the sargasso plants to strike out as well. The vines entangle everyone, making progress difficult. Can the party reach the mother in time? Or will the slow decay of the damp seaweed claim another prize?
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Z
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 1200 gp in a chest
Sunday, July 8, 2007
The Voyage Southward
Captain's Log, The Cresting Wave by Amella Venkalie 61 days out from Sasserine
After leaving the village of Renkrue, the fleet sails south to continue its journey to the Isle of Dread and the colony of Farshore.
4 days out from Renkrue, the fleet encounters the Pearl current. It is a strong current whose width and position vary as it traverses the ocean. With some effort, the Blue Nixie and the Vicious Spanking navigate through the current after three or four days. The Cresting Wave (formerly known as the Sea Wyvern) struggles with the current for nineteen days, putting ourselves far behind the the rest of the fleet.
23 days out from Renkrue, we finally reach the wild island of Ruja. Even the obnoxiously curious Urol doesn't have too much interest to explore there. They still decide to stop and explore anyway. With Urol ashore, and Avner gone the ship will be remarkably quiet. I wonder if Z is going to stay behind.
The shore party returns after a day. The silly half-orc has got himself a new shiny stick to pound things with. Maybe he'll leave the ballista alone for a while. Z stayed behind and we worked on updating the charts, I think I'll invite him to dinner.
4 days out from Ruja, the first real storm hits us. It is very bad. We had just gotten our navigation straightened out after the Pearl Current. Now the storm has tossed us about. It may take us a day or two to regain our bearings.
8 days out from Ruja, we run aground in the largest Sargasso I have ever heard of. It is called 'The Journey's End' and I fear the worst. We are half-a-mile into the sargasso, there appears to be no way to break free from its grip. The shore party has left to go explore a nearby wreck.
9 days out from Ruja, grim news from the shore party. There are fell creatures that inhabit this place. A log from the other ship revealed a driving intelligence behind the minions of the sargasso. The shore party is leaving to explore more wrecks and try to find a way out.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Vin, Chiri, Ortho, Ruddy
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 2000 gp of newly minted coins, 2000 sp of newly minted coins, a family heirloom falchion of the Milano's.
After leaving the village of Renkrue, the fleet sails south to continue its journey to the Isle of Dread and the colony of Farshore.
4 days out from Renkrue, the fleet encounters the Pearl current. It is a strong current whose width and position vary as it traverses the ocean. With some effort, the Blue Nixie and the Vicious Spanking navigate through the current after three or four days. The Cresting Wave (formerly known as the Sea Wyvern) struggles with the current for nineteen days, putting ourselves far behind the the rest of the fleet.
23 days out from Renkrue, we finally reach the wild island of Ruja. Even the obnoxiously curious Urol doesn't have too much interest to explore there. They still decide to stop and explore anyway. With Urol ashore, and Avner gone the ship will be remarkably quiet. I wonder if Z is going to stay behind.
The shore party returns after a day. The silly half-orc has got himself a new shiny stick to pound things with. Maybe he'll leave the ballista alone for a while. Z stayed behind and we worked on updating the charts, I think I'll invite him to dinner.
4 days out from Ruja, the first real storm hits us. It is very bad. We had just gotten our navigation straightened out after the Pearl Current. Now the storm has tossed us about. It may take us a day or two to regain our bearings.
8 days out from Ruja, we run aground in the largest Sargasso I have ever heard of. It is called 'The Journey's End' and I fear the worst. We are half-a-mile into the sargasso, there appears to be no way to break free from its grip. The shore party has left to go explore a nearby wreck.
9 days out from Ruja, grim news from the shore party. There are fell creatures that inhabit this place. A log from the other ship revealed a driving intelligence behind the minions of the sargasso. The shore party is leaving to explore more wrecks and try to find a way out.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Vin, Chiri, Ortho, Ruddy
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 2000 gp of newly minted coins, 2000 sp of newly minted coins, a family heirloom falchion of the Milano's.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
From the Diary of Ortho
Ortho's Diary entry 1,
I have been sent along on a journey to keep an eye on Avner. Lavinia expected he would meet with trouble on the voyage because of his demeanor. She was right as usual. Some of the crew developed a dislike for him immediately and treated him badly. It is my job to see that Avner makes it to his destination alive and I had to keep my purpose secret to succeed. In the last town a couple of our crew began looting and turned on Avner. They thought they had killed him but I managed to rescue him from a burning building and sneak him to one of the other buildings where he was tended to by a village healer. I remained on the ship with Rudolpho and Daria to monitor their behavior and to keep them from being suspicious of Avner's survival. I deplore working with these barbarians but they are tools I must use to reach my goal.
I will confide in Vin Icemark if I require assistance. He appears to be smitten with Lavinia however and I will remain distant to monitor his behavior till I'm assured he has no ulterior motives.
May the Fates see this journey to an end soon.
I have been sent along on a journey to keep an eye on Avner. Lavinia expected he would meet with trouble on the voyage because of his demeanor. She was right as usual. Some of the crew developed a dislike for him immediately and treated him badly. It is my job to see that Avner makes it to his destination alive and I had to keep my purpose secret to succeed. In the last town a couple of our crew began looting and turned on Avner. They thought they had killed him but I managed to rescue him from a burning building and sneak him to one of the other buildings where he was tended to by a village healer. I remained on the ship with Rudolpho and Daria to monitor their behavior and to keep them from being suspicious of Avner's survival. I deplore working with these barbarians but they are tools I must use to reach my goal.
I will confide in Vin Icemark if I require assistance. He appears to be smitten with Lavinia however and I will remain distant to monitor his behavior till I'm assured he has no ulterior motives.
May the Fates see this journey to an end soon.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
I hate losers. We just happened to find a whole town full of them on the island of Axuxal. I forget the real name of the place but that’s OK, I call it Loserville. We stopped at Loserville to replenish supplies and do some shopping only to find out that the broke losers had nothing worthwhile to sell and no money to buy any of our excess loot.
Daria, Avner, and a few other members of the crew decided to stay in town to hang out and relax but I decided I didn’t want anything to do with the losers there so I stayed on board the ship to have a couple mugs of my magic butt beer and update my diary. I ‘m glad that Avner and Daria have finally learned to get along. I really want that guy to amount to something when we get him back to his family in Sasserine. We can always use all the allies we can get.
Damn! I hear some clamor coming from town now. Gotta go see what it’s about.
-R
==========
Dear Diary,
Rest in peace, Avner.
Wouldn’t you know it, late in the afternoon I ran up on the prow to see what’s going on in Loserville, and I see a huge band of losers, led by the loser chief himself, accosting poor Daria and Avner. Without even aiming, I quickly fired a warning ballista shot into the mob and jumped off the ship.
By the time I swam to shore and ran up the beach to the town center, some loser had killed poor Avner and set his body on fire. That made me REALLY MAD. What’s more, when I began to get close, a woman summoned up one of those damn pickled gremlins. I recognized her as Rowyn of the Lotus Dragons. I thought we were working for her and here she is attacking Daria!
I moved in to help Daria with the gremlin and she stepped back to catch her breath. I split that pickled snotball in two about the same time that Kongu got to the scene. With Nesta picking off losers right and left, they decided to retreat with their dead chief.
Rowyn cast a spell and turned invisible! Everyone called to the ship for Nesta, the newly minted manhunter, to come track her.
I was still plenty pissed and in my berserker rage so I charged the town hall and burst apart the door. From outside I heard Kongu yell “A funeral fit for a king!” Of course at that time, I had no idea what he was talking about. There were three more losers inside the town hall so I killed them before I sat down to catch my breath. Getting that pissed off always gets me a little winded.
As I stepped outside to sit down and rest, I noticed for the first time that several buildings, including the tavern, were on fire. Avner’s body was inside the tavern burning amidst all the alcohol. I heard screams of terror and pain coming from some of the houses. That cheered me up a little bit I guess.
I didn’t see Daria or Nesta anywhere but Kongu was making his way to the town hall. He didn’t waste any time; he walked in grabbed two crates, threw them up on his shoulders, and began walking back to the Cresting Wave. That kid learns fast. I was still taking my well-deserved break when I heard the war drums and the shouting of what must have been hundreds of losers.
Now, most folks would have taken that as an invitation to leave while they were ahead - but not this pirate. Nope, I was still in a piss-ass mood and I figured that I needed to kill a lot more losers before my mood would improve any. No one kills my buddy Avner and gets away with it.
No one else was around to help me but I figured that I could probably fight as I retreated back to the ships and come out OK. As the war party finally closed the distance to hand to hand combat, I came up with a plan: I would keep my cool and fight in a doorway so that I would only have to fight two or three losers at a time. When the time came to retreat, I would exit through the back wall.
When I began to battle the losers, I noticed that they had the toughest losers up front. I started combat with them and got a couple of nicks from their spears. I even got hit with a couple of thrown rocks. That really pissed me off but I still kept my cool.
Then, out of nowhere, Rowyn appeared and tried to backstab me like those punk kids in the back alleys of Sasserine do. She didn’t know who she was dealing with! I pivoted out of the way in time but still got nicked me with her blade. The wound really burned - I figure she put some poison on her dagger. THAT made me finally lose my cool.
Then, the strangest thing happened. I had a moment where everything was suddenly clear to me. You know, when all the ropes and pulleys in your brain finally catch. Rowyn was the one that unleashed the first pickled gremlin on the Sea Wyvern. Rowyn was the one that cut the rope connecting our two ships. Rowyn was the one that killed Kongu’s fish. Rowyn was the one that poisoned my food! Now I had a new plan: kill Rowyn at all costs.
I flew into a berserker rage and swung at Rowyn but she avoided most of the blow and I only wounded her. As I parried her clumsy attack and got ready to cleave her in two, it started raining flecks of gold! I couldn’t see shit! I took my best swing at where Rowyn was last standing and was rewarded with a warm spray of blood that I could feel on my face. I pried my falchion from her corpse and stepped back into the doorway to defend myself until I could see again.
I could hear the voices of Kongu & Z then so I figured that everything would be OK. Before too long, I heard the voices of Daria and Vin also. Finally, everyone was joining in on the fun! I fought even while I was blinded but I did a lot better when my vision cleared. I also saw Nesta picking off losers from the deck of the Cresting Wave.
Kongu, for some reason, was offering them mercy. Mercy? After what they did to Avner? I don’t think so! That Knogu is a killing machine. For a little while I actually worried that he might get to kill more losers than I did. I really need to work on my fighting technique. A few of the losers retreated but the rest of them fought to the death. Suckers.
Like I said, my first plan was to kill every last one of the losers but killing Rowyn had really improved my mood so it didn’t seem so important after all. Besides I didn’t want to spend all that time tracking the losers down. I grabbed some loot out of the town hall and began walking back to the dinghies. Someone set the town hall on fire, and just for kicks, before we left, I changed their little sign to read ‘Loserville’.
I didn’t get any info on Maria or my pa from these losers! Maybe on the way back through, we can stop for a couple of days so I can kill everyone. Or, maybe, Avner’s family will pay me to do it when they hear what these primitives did to him.
I gotta hand it to Lavina. When she’s right, she’s right. That was a very relaxing shore leave. I feel much better.
Bye, Avner. I miss you, buddy.
-R
I hate losers. We just happened to find a whole town full of them on the island of Axuxal. I forget the real name of the place but that’s OK, I call it Loserville. We stopped at Loserville to replenish supplies and do some shopping only to find out that the broke losers had nothing worthwhile to sell and no money to buy any of our excess loot.
Daria, Avner, and a few other members of the crew decided to stay in town to hang out and relax but I decided I didn’t want anything to do with the losers there so I stayed on board the ship to have a couple mugs of my magic butt beer and update my diary. I ‘m glad that Avner and Daria have finally learned to get along. I really want that guy to amount to something when we get him back to his family in Sasserine. We can always use all the allies we can get.
Damn! I hear some clamor coming from town now. Gotta go see what it’s about.
-R
==========
Dear Diary,
Rest in peace, Avner.
Wouldn’t you know it, late in the afternoon I ran up on the prow to see what’s going on in Loserville, and I see a huge band of losers, led by the loser chief himself, accosting poor Daria and Avner. Without even aiming, I quickly fired a warning ballista shot into the mob and jumped off the ship.
By the time I swam to shore and ran up the beach to the town center, some loser had killed poor Avner and set his body on fire. That made me REALLY MAD. What’s more, when I began to get close, a woman summoned up one of those damn pickled gremlins. I recognized her as Rowyn of the Lotus Dragons. I thought we were working for her and here she is attacking Daria!
I moved in to help Daria with the gremlin and she stepped back to catch her breath. I split that pickled snotball in two about the same time that Kongu got to the scene. With Nesta picking off losers right and left, they decided to retreat with their dead chief.
Rowyn cast a spell and turned invisible! Everyone called to the ship for Nesta, the newly minted manhunter, to come track her.
I was still plenty pissed and in my berserker rage so I charged the town hall and burst apart the door. From outside I heard Kongu yell “A funeral fit for a king!” Of course at that time, I had no idea what he was talking about. There were three more losers inside the town hall so I killed them before I sat down to catch my breath. Getting that pissed off always gets me a little winded.
As I stepped outside to sit down and rest, I noticed for the first time that several buildings, including the tavern, were on fire. Avner’s body was inside the tavern burning amidst all the alcohol. I heard screams of terror and pain coming from some of the houses. That cheered me up a little bit I guess.
I didn’t see Daria or Nesta anywhere but Kongu was making his way to the town hall. He didn’t waste any time; he walked in grabbed two crates, threw them up on his shoulders, and began walking back to the Cresting Wave. That kid learns fast. I was still taking my well-deserved break when I heard the war drums and the shouting of what must have been hundreds of losers.
Now, most folks would have taken that as an invitation to leave while they were ahead - but not this pirate. Nope, I was still in a piss-ass mood and I figured that I needed to kill a lot more losers before my mood would improve any. No one kills my buddy Avner and gets away with it.
No one else was around to help me but I figured that I could probably fight as I retreated back to the ships and come out OK. As the war party finally closed the distance to hand to hand combat, I came up with a plan: I would keep my cool and fight in a doorway so that I would only have to fight two or three losers at a time. When the time came to retreat, I would exit through the back wall.
When I began to battle the losers, I noticed that they had the toughest losers up front. I started combat with them and got a couple of nicks from their spears. I even got hit with a couple of thrown rocks. That really pissed me off but I still kept my cool.
Then, out of nowhere, Rowyn appeared and tried to backstab me like those punk kids in the back alleys of Sasserine do. She didn’t know who she was dealing with! I pivoted out of the way in time but still got nicked me with her blade. The wound really burned - I figure she put some poison on her dagger. THAT made me finally lose my cool.
Then, the strangest thing happened. I had a moment where everything was suddenly clear to me. You know, when all the ropes and pulleys in your brain finally catch. Rowyn was the one that unleashed the first pickled gremlin on the Sea Wyvern. Rowyn was the one that cut the rope connecting our two ships. Rowyn was the one that killed Kongu’s fish. Rowyn was the one that poisoned my food! Now I had a new plan: kill Rowyn at all costs.
I flew into a berserker rage and swung at Rowyn but she avoided most of the blow and I only wounded her. As I parried her clumsy attack and got ready to cleave her in two, it started raining flecks of gold! I couldn’t see shit! I took my best swing at where Rowyn was last standing and was rewarded with a warm spray of blood that I could feel on my face. I pried my falchion from her corpse and stepped back into the doorway to defend myself until I could see again.
I could hear the voices of Kongu & Z then so I figured that everything would be OK. Before too long, I heard the voices of Daria and Vin also. Finally, everyone was joining in on the fun! I fought even while I was blinded but I did a lot better when my vision cleared. I also saw Nesta picking off losers from the deck of the Cresting Wave.
Kongu, for some reason, was offering them mercy. Mercy? After what they did to Avner? I don’t think so! That Knogu is a killing machine. For a little while I actually worried that he might get to kill more losers than I did. I really need to work on my fighting technique. A few of the losers retreated but the rest of them fought to the death. Suckers.
Like I said, my first plan was to kill every last one of the losers but killing Rowyn had really improved my mood so it didn’t seem so important after all. Besides I didn’t want to spend all that time tracking the losers down. I grabbed some loot out of the town hall and began walking back to the dinghies. Someone set the town hall on fire, and just for kicks, before we left, I changed their little sign to read ‘Loserville’.
I didn’t get any info on Maria or my pa from these losers! Maybe on the way back through, we can stop for a couple of days so I can kill everyone. Or, maybe, Avner’s family will pay me to do it when they hear what these primitives did to him.
I gotta hand it to Lavina. When she’s right, she’s right. That was a very relaxing shore leave. I feel much better.
Bye, Avner. I miss you, buddy.
-R
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
Boy have I had a bad couple of days. The one good part is that Z and Cheri were able to cure my sandy condition with some kind of magic scroll and a bead. After that, things went to shit as usual.
Our crap-delivery mission continues to piss me off with every minute that I spend on this damn ship. I want to get back to Sasserine so I can get my damn adamantine falchion.
The other day we had to make a run through the pirate-infested waters of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Lavinia's brilliant suggestion was to slip through one at a time. That sounded just fine and dandy to me. I figured we could wait for the Sea Nymph to go on ahead and then turn our ship around to head home. But nooo! Gallant Sir Vin convince everyone to keep the two ships together in order to fight off any attacking pirates. I’m all for pirate-killing I guess but now we’re still stuck with Lavinia on this mission.
Since we were going to try to slip through at night, I decided to try to take advantage of the fact that most pirates are a superstitious lot. We painted the name of the ghost ship, the Cresting Wave on the Sea Wyvern to spook the Scarlet Brotherhood. I figured the Cresting Wave would have a fair amount of legend behind it and no-one would dare attack us. As usual, I was completely wrong.
As we made our way through the straight, we were attacked by two pirate ships, the Purity’s Prow and the Whaler. That was the strangest ship battle that I have ever been involved in. I didn’t get to do much. I think I fired the bow ballista a couple of times.
We started off with Z launching a huge-ass exploding ball of flames at the Whaler. As the crew ran around like trying like hell to put out the fire, our captain ordered our ship to turn about and make ready to ram. Nesta picked individual sailors off of the deck of the Purity’s Prow with her longbow. She made a game out of alternately offing whoever was brave enough to man the wheel and plunking arrows into the captain with lethal accuracy.
As we made our turn, that silly wizard that we picked up cast some sort of spell that filled our sails with the fastest wind I’ve ever sailed in. I’ve never traveled that fast in a ship, ever! There wasn’t much left of the Whaler after we rammed her. We turned about again to go after the Purity’s Prow and starting to think that finally I’ll get to do some hand to hand killing when the boat just up and surrenders to us.
I boarded first to make sure that I didn’t recognize any of the crew as the pirates that tossed me overboard a couple of years ago. Luckily for them, I didn’t recognize them. None of them had any news of me pa, Antonio or that bitch Maria. Spanky took command of the ship and promptly rechristened it the Vicious Spanking. That guy has issues.
Shortly thereafter, we were replenishing our water at a waterfall when we were attacked by a seven-headed sea-dragon. My dull falchion didn’t even penetrate its tough hide. Luckily we killed the beast and spent the rest of the day diving for treasure. There was a handful of sunken ships lying on the ocean floor there. All of ‘em were all busted up and it was pretty obvious what done it. I couldn’t make out any of the ship names. Ah, well. The losers shoulda’ fought harder.
Sometimes I wonder if something like that has happened to my own sweet pa, Antonio Milano. Then again I also sometimes like to fart underwater just to watch the bubbles. I gotta remember to ask around for Antonio or Maria at the next spot of civilization we come to.
That brings me to my last incident to report. A couple of days before the fight with the dragon, we got to Fort Greenlock, where I was hoping to do some asking around - or maybe even get Vin ‘everyone-loves-me’ Icemark to do it for me while the captains took on more provisions. Unfortunately for everyone, Fort Greenlock has been abaondoned.
There appears to have been an attack, although there were no bodies. Yep, a genuine mystery. As mysteries really bore me, I was quite relieved that Vin didn’t open his big blue mouth and get everyone stomping through the forest an a big loser-hunt.
Lavinia says that we will soon enough come to the peaceful village of Renkrue on the island of Axuxal. She suggests that we can make a short stay there to relax. That sounds good to me. I can’t wait to do some shopping, drinking, asking around, and just plain relaxing someplace other than this damn boat. Yep, I’m sure looking forward this stop.
-R
Boy have I had a bad couple of days. The one good part is that Z and Cheri were able to cure my sandy condition with some kind of magic scroll and a bead. After that, things went to shit as usual.
Our crap-delivery mission continues to piss me off with every minute that I spend on this damn ship. I want to get back to Sasserine so I can get my damn adamantine falchion.
The other day we had to make a run through the pirate-infested waters of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Lavinia's brilliant suggestion was to slip through one at a time. That sounded just fine and dandy to me. I figured we could wait for the Sea Nymph to go on ahead and then turn our ship around to head home. But nooo! Gallant Sir Vin convince everyone to keep the two ships together in order to fight off any attacking pirates. I’m all for pirate-killing I guess but now we’re still stuck with Lavinia on this mission.
Since we were going to try to slip through at night, I decided to try to take advantage of the fact that most pirates are a superstitious lot. We painted the name of the ghost ship, the Cresting Wave on the Sea Wyvern to spook the Scarlet Brotherhood. I figured the Cresting Wave would have a fair amount of legend behind it and no-one would dare attack us. As usual, I was completely wrong.
As we made our way through the straight, we were attacked by two pirate ships, the Purity’s Prow and the Whaler. That was the strangest ship battle that I have ever been involved in. I didn’t get to do much. I think I fired the bow ballista a couple of times.
We started off with Z launching a huge-ass exploding ball of flames at the Whaler. As the crew ran around like trying like hell to put out the fire, our captain ordered our ship to turn about and make ready to ram. Nesta picked individual sailors off of the deck of the Purity’s Prow with her longbow. She made a game out of alternately offing whoever was brave enough to man the wheel and plunking arrows into the captain with lethal accuracy.
As we made our turn, that silly wizard that we picked up cast some sort of spell that filled our sails with the fastest wind I’ve ever sailed in. I’ve never traveled that fast in a ship, ever! There wasn’t much left of the Whaler after we rammed her. We turned about again to go after the Purity’s Prow and starting to think that finally I’ll get to do some hand to hand killing when the boat just up and surrenders to us.
I boarded first to make sure that I didn’t recognize any of the crew as the pirates that tossed me overboard a couple of years ago. Luckily for them, I didn’t recognize them. None of them had any news of me pa, Antonio or that bitch Maria. Spanky took command of the ship and promptly rechristened it the Vicious Spanking. That guy has issues.
Shortly thereafter, we were replenishing our water at a waterfall when we were attacked by a seven-headed sea-dragon. My dull falchion didn’t even penetrate its tough hide. Luckily we killed the beast and spent the rest of the day diving for treasure. There was a handful of sunken ships lying on the ocean floor there. All of ‘em were all busted up and it was pretty obvious what done it. I couldn’t make out any of the ship names. Ah, well. The losers shoulda’ fought harder.
Sometimes I wonder if something like that has happened to my own sweet pa, Antonio Milano. Then again I also sometimes like to fart underwater just to watch the bubbles. I gotta remember to ask around for Antonio or Maria at the next spot of civilization we come to.
That brings me to my last incident to report. A couple of days before the fight with the dragon, we got to Fort Greenlock, where I was hoping to do some asking around - or maybe even get Vin ‘everyone-loves-me’ Icemark to do it for me while the captains took on more provisions. Unfortunately for everyone, Fort Greenlock has been abaondoned.
There appears to have been an attack, although there were no bodies. Yep, a genuine mystery. As mysteries really bore me, I was quite relieved that Vin didn’t open his big blue mouth and get everyone stomping through the forest an a big loser-hunt.
Lavinia says that we will soon enough come to the peaceful village of Renkrue on the island of Axuxal. She suggests that we can make a short stay there to relax. That sounds good to me. I can’t wait to do some shopping, drinking, asking around, and just plain relaxing someplace other than this damn boat. Yep, I’m sure looking forward this stop.
-R
Sunday, June 24, 2007
From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano
Dear Diary,
I’m turning to sand. It’s a long story.
After we fought the eight-legged freak; Vin, Nesta, and Kongu left the exploratory party to carry it back to the Sea Wyvern. The rest of us, with the addition of Cheri (who seemed to appear out of nowhere), entered the ruins of Tomoachan.
The first room we came to was painted up in scenes of some long-abandoned primitive loser city like nothing I’ve ever seen. This stuff was totally outside my experience. Some weird alien feeling of wonder came over me as I realized that the losers that built this ruin lived and died ages ago. Then the feeling passed and was getting pissed just being there and having to listen to Urol.
Things soon got interesting. After we walked down a few steps and began to examine the room a blazing wall of fire appeared out of nowhere and spooked the party. They started running around like a bunch of kenku with their heads cut off.
While most everyone else hid in a little alcove along the south wall, I just kept searching the room for any treasure. I’ve walked through fire before and it didn’t hurt - I figured I could handle being singed a little. This fire was different though. It hurt like hell!
The wall moved from the East side of the room to the west and disappeared. We figured that was that, but noooo! Another fire wall appeared in the same place and it all happened over again - only this time I hid in the alcove with everyone else.
Anyway, this crap went on about a hundred more times and in the end we discovered a fat lot of nothing. After we got through that mess, we came into a room that was a miniature model of a city. I was like “Look at me! I’m a titan and I’m stomping this stupid primitive city and all the losers in it flat! Mu-hu-ha-ha-ha!” Then Ural started his whining and bitching and Vin wouldn’t let me play titan so I had to entertain my self by looking for more treasure.
Sure enough, there was some treasure. The central pyramid in the miniature city was actually some kinda coffin for some long-dead loser. I was first on the scene and when I pried up the lid, I got a face full of some rotten, stank nasty dust that made me cough and wheeze.
But that’s not even the best part! The freaken’ punchline came about a minute later when I started coughing up sand! No kidding - sand! I shit you not! And I started to feel real freakin’ bad. As if that weren’t bad enough, the treasure got divvied up while I was busy coughing sand!
Then, we had to cut through an iron wall to continue on. I think I seriously dulled the blade on my falchion but I’ll get into that later.
The next room we came to was occupied by some bat-loser that spit fire at us, so we killed him. There was also some ball of light there that seemed to be on our side. I’ve heard pirate stories about such critters. The stories always made out like the lights were evil. Oh well. Thanks, little evil ball of light.
We got some silly little gold bat statue for treasure. One of the big brains in the party said that the statue was magic so we loaded it up to take with us. Urol claims that the room was some kind of ancient calendar. I gotta admit, about this time I was fed up with coughing sand and getting real tired of hearing that gnome’s voice.
The last room in this bizarre dungeon was inhabited by a big pile of eyes and mouths. If you can believe it, this thing talked even more than Urol! It jabbered so much in fact that I got kinda ‘confused’ about who I was, where I was, and what I was supposed to be doing!
The next thing I remember, I must have killed it because it was cut near in two. The rest of the party must have suffered something similar because I noticed that Urol had some halfling-sized arrows sticking out of his side. We got some more minor treasure and finally went back to the ships.
Today, I got even worse. I started to look like hell with sores where my flesh was turning to sand. I hope Z and Cheri are able to heal me.
One more little item: Nesta claims that she’s not an undead hunter anymore - she’s a manhunter. She’s always up on deck shooting at her special target dummy with the vital points marked.
-R
I’m turning to sand. It’s a long story.
After we fought the eight-legged freak; Vin, Nesta, and Kongu left the exploratory party to carry it back to the Sea Wyvern. The rest of us, with the addition of Cheri (who seemed to appear out of nowhere), entered the ruins of Tomoachan.
The first room we came to was painted up in scenes of some long-abandoned primitive loser city like nothing I’ve ever seen. This stuff was totally outside my experience. Some weird alien feeling of wonder came over me as I realized that the losers that built this ruin lived and died ages ago. Then the feeling passed and was getting pissed just being there and having to listen to Urol.
Things soon got interesting. After we walked down a few steps and began to examine the room a blazing wall of fire appeared out of nowhere and spooked the party. They started running around like a bunch of kenku with their heads cut off.
While most everyone else hid in a little alcove along the south wall, I just kept searching the room for any treasure. I’ve walked through fire before and it didn’t hurt - I figured I could handle being singed a little. This fire was different though. It hurt like hell!
The wall moved from the East side of the room to the west and disappeared. We figured that was that, but noooo! Another fire wall appeared in the same place and it all happened over again - only this time I hid in the alcove with everyone else.
Anyway, this crap went on about a hundred more times and in the end we discovered a fat lot of nothing. After we got through that mess, we came into a room that was a miniature model of a city. I was like “Look at me! I’m a titan and I’m stomping this stupid primitive city and all the losers in it flat! Mu-hu-ha-ha-ha!” Then Ural started his whining and bitching and Vin wouldn’t let me play titan so I had to entertain my self by looking for more treasure.
Sure enough, there was some treasure. The central pyramid in the miniature city was actually some kinda coffin for some long-dead loser. I was first on the scene and when I pried up the lid, I got a face full of some rotten, stank nasty dust that made me cough and wheeze.
But that’s not even the best part! The freaken’ punchline came about a minute later when I started coughing up sand! No kidding - sand! I shit you not! And I started to feel real freakin’ bad. As if that weren’t bad enough, the treasure got divvied up while I was busy coughing sand!
Then, we had to cut through an iron wall to continue on. I think I seriously dulled the blade on my falchion but I’ll get into that later.
The next room we came to was occupied by some bat-loser that spit fire at us, so we killed him. There was also some ball of light there that seemed to be on our side. I’ve heard pirate stories about such critters. The stories always made out like the lights were evil. Oh well. Thanks, little evil ball of light.
We got some silly little gold bat statue for treasure. One of the big brains in the party said that the statue was magic so we loaded it up to take with us. Urol claims that the room was some kind of ancient calendar. I gotta admit, about this time I was fed up with coughing sand and getting real tired of hearing that gnome’s voice.
The last room in this bizarre dungeon was inhabited by a big pile of eyes and mouths. If you can believe it, this thing talked even more than Urol! It jabbered so much in fact that I got kinda ‘confused’ about who I was, where I was, and what I was supposed to be doing!
The next thing I remember, I must have killed it because it was cut near in two. The rest of the party must have suffered something similar because I noticed that Urol had some halfling-sized arrows sticking out of his side. We got some more minor treasure and finally went back to the ships.
Today, I got even worse. I started to look like hell with sores where my flesh was turning to sand. I hope Z and Cheri are able to heal me.
One more little item: Nesta claims that she’s not an undead hunter anymore - she’s a manhunter. She’s always up on deck shooting at her special target dummy with the vital points marked.
-R
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Bonus for the Bonus XP
Since the response has been all but non-existent for the existing offer:
Characters submitted by Thursday (21-Jun-2007) 11:59 PM will receive special consideration with either additional experience, monetary, or magical item rewards. Characters that were submitted by 11:59 PM Monday (18-Jun-2007), as an award for their player's special diligence, will have a gift of extraordinary magnitude.
Characters submitted by Thursday (21-Jun-2007) 11:59 PM will receive special consideration with either additional experience, monetary, or magical item rewards. Characters that were submitted by 11:59 PM Monday (18-Jun-2007), as an award for their player's special diligence, will have a gift of extraordinary magnitude.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Ramming the Red Fleet
Returning to the ship, the adventurers recover from their trials. Rudolpho has the mummy-rot cured with the aid of a couple of scrolls found in the crypt. The fleet embarks again.
The voyage continues around the peninsula, into the pirate infested waters of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Lavinia's suggestion was to slip through one at a time, but dear brave Vin suggested that they keep the fleet together. So, together the ships sail through the pass at night. Of course, to Brotherhood ships attempt to intercept the party, not realizing the danger. In a dramatic sea battle, Vin leads the ships headlong into combat. The final ramming maneuver into the Angry Whaler, breaks the will of the pirates to pursue combat. Nesta's suppressing fire, removing any leadership from the decks of the opposing fleet. The Angry Whaler sinks into the deep, while the Purity's Prow is captured and crewed to join the journey to the Isle of Dread. First mate Spanky is promoted to Captain, and given command of the Purity's Prow.
Continuing down the coast, the stop at Fort Greenrock takes an eerie turn as the town is deserted. Apparently a while ago the Fort was attacked and abandoned. Now it stands as a ghost town on the coast of the Amedio jungle. Several days later, the fleet stops for water and the party is attacked by an aquatic hydra. The party pulls no punches and clobbers the creature back into the briney deep. The voyage resumes, and several days later the party arrives at the isle of Axuxal and the village Renkrue. Lavinia suggests a day's shore leave in this peaceful village.
==========
Session characters: Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Nesta, Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: [note 1] Kongu advances to 5th level
Session Loot: 1825 gp in booty, 102 gp, +1 chainmail, cloak of the manta ray, caravel: Purity's Prow
[note 1] I am using the XP calculating spreadsheet, so now I will just post when characters (that I have on file) advance. New secondary characters will have to get their starting XP from me.
The voyage continues around the peninsula, into the pirate infested waters of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Lavinia's suggestion was to slip through one at a time, but dear brave Vin suggested that they keep the fleet together. So, together the ships sail through the pass at night. Of course, to Brotherhood ships attempt to intercept the party, not realizing the danger. In a dramatic sea battle, Vin leads the ships headlong into combat. The final ramming maneuver into the Angry Whaler, breaks the will of the pirates to pursue combat. Nesta's suppressing fire, removing any leadership from the decks of the opposing fleet. The Angry Whaler sinks into the deep, while the Purity's Prow is captured and crewed to join the journey to the Isle of Dread. First mate Spanky is promoted to Captain, and given command of the Purity's Prow.
Continuing down the coast, the stop at Fort Greenrock takes an eerie turn as the town is deserted. Apparently a while ago the Fort was attacked and abandoned. Now it stands as a ghost town on the coast of the Amedio jungle. Several days later, the fleet stops for water and the party is attacked by an aquatic hydra. The party pulls no punches and clobbers the creature back into the briney deep. The voyage resumes, and several days later the party arrives at the isle of Axuxal and the village Renkrue. Lavinia suggests a day's shore leave in this peaceful village.
==========
Session characters: Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Nesta, Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: [note 1] Kongu advances to 5th level
Session Loot: 1825 gp in booty, 102 gp, +1 chainmail, cloak of the manta ray, caravel: Purity's Prow
[note 1] I am using the XP calculating spreadsheet, so now I will just post when characters (that I have on file) advance. New secondary characters will have to get their starting XP from me.
Bonus XP offering
I would like current copies of everyone characters, in electronic format and e-mailed to me at the.great.waldo@gmail.com, scanned images into PDF's are acceptable.
The incentive for this activity is 300 XP. To qualify for this award, you must have submitted a character history/background.
The incentive for this activity is 300 XP. To qualify for this award, you must have submitted a character history/background.
Current Levels
Characters at 5th level: Nesta, Rudolpho, Vin, Newt, Daria, Zaelinniaeus
Characters at 4th level: Chiri, Ortho, Kongu, Spanky, Drugen
Please take the time to advance your characters.
Characters at 4th level: Chiri, Ortho, Kongu, Spanky, Drugen
Please take the time to advance your characters.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Mummy's the word, Man-bat!
After defeating the basilisk, the party bound the dread beast and decided to take it back to the ship. The potential sale of such and animal would be most lucrative. Urol expressed grave reservations about the attempt, Aver just wept to himself. But after it was decided, Nesta, Ortho, Kongu, and Vin returned to the ship with the dangerous beast. And to help reinforce the shore party, Chiri disembarked and caught up with the group.
The next area of exploration contained a rotting statue, which fascinated Urol and pissed off Rudolpho. Then the slimy, toothy ooze of a gibbering mouther attacked the party. Urol almost bought the farm in this encounter, with both damage from the monster and a little not-so-friendly fire.
The next area was much more substantial in size, cold chills passed through their bones and the party entered the large room, a worn replica of an ancient city. Then a magical wall of fire crossed the room and cinged a few party members, most escaped into a small side cavern.
The following room was blocked by an iron wall, which Rudopho bashed his way through. The room on the other side was an even more elaborate and much more intact replica of a city. After a careful search, Rudopho discovered a compartment in the top of the pyramid that happened to be trapped with mummy dust. If a half-orc could ever turn 'green', Rudopho did a minute after discovering the trap.
The party encountered a strange man-bat creature that battled them in a calendar room of the Tamoachan. A strange Will-o-wisp aided the party in combat, then dissapeared. After the calendar room, a well and a crypt with a fair amount of treasure rewarded the party for their troubles. Strangely, Aver and Urol survived the exercise.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Chiri, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 2500 each
Session Bonus: none
Session Loot: lesser strand of prayer beads: bless, heal; 6 turquoise gems (50 gp each), +1 dagger, ivory fan (180 gp), platinum bracelet (230 gp), elaborate golden magical bat idol (2500 gp), 6 scrolls (remove curse x2, lesser restoration x2, divination, divine power), rod of lesser metamagic-silent (3000 gp), 7 elaborately carved ivory bats (80 gp each), 5 salves (enlarge, reduce, levitate, cure moderate wounds, invisibility)
The next area of exploration contained a rotting statue, which fascinated Urol and pissed off Rudolpho. Then the slimy, toothy ooze of a gibbering mouther attacked the party. Urol almost bought the farm in this encounter, with both damage from the monster and a little not-so-friendly fire.
The next area was much more substantial in size, cold chills passed through their bones and the party entered the large room, a worn replica of an ancient city. Then a magical wall of fire crossed the room and cinged a few party members, most escaped into a small side cavern.
The following room was blocked by an iron wall, which Rudopho bashed his way through. The room on the other side was an even more elaborate and much more intact replica of a city. After a careful search, Rudopho discovered a compartment in the top of the pyramid that happened to be trapped with mummy dust. If a half-orc could ever turn 'green', Rudopho did a minute after discovering the trap.
The party encountered a strange man-bat creature that battled them in a calendar room of the Tamoachan. A strange Will-o-wisp aided the party in combat, then dissapeared. After the calendar room, a well and a crypt with a fair amount of treasure rewarded the party for their troubles. Strangely, Aver and Urol survived the exercise.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Chiri, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 2500 each
Session Bonus: none
Session Loot: lesser strand of prayer beads: bless, heal; 6 turquoise gems (50 gp each), +1 dagger, ivory fan (180 gp), platinum bracelet (230 gp), elaborate golden magical bat idol (2500 gp), 6 scrolls (remove curse x2, lesser restoration x2, divination, divine power), rod of lesser metamagic-silent (3000 gp), 7 elaborately carved ivory bats (80 gp each), 5 salves (enlarge, reduce, levitate, cure moderate wounds, invisibility)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Sea Wyvern's Captain's Log, days 24-38.
by Amella Venkalie
Day 24: Rough night. A thick fog rolled in, the weather is probably going to change soon. We are anchored near the entrance of the Havekihu River. Later some kind of sea ooze monster attacked the ship and then the crew. The half-orc even jump into the middle of the damn slimey thing.
Day 27: Father Feres is on a barfing binge. He does not look well at all. Z and Urol are trying to get him to keep some food down.
Day 33: Father Feres came screaming up to the deck and exploded into the hugh blue frog monster. I've never seen anything like it, nor do I want to ever again. That thing was dangerous, we could have been in serious trouble.
Day 34: Rudolpho, Daria, Kongo and a few of the others started searching the ship, thinking that there is a poisoner aboard. The rest of the crew is grumbling again.
Day 36: After two more days of searching, Rudolpho has quit complaining about the food. Vin seems to be acting a bit different lately.
Day 37: Vin's skin has turned blue, Z says not to mention it that it might make him self-conscious.
Day 38: Another Lavinia dinner. There is going to be a field trip for that insufferable gnome Urol. He smells even worse than Newt. Maybe the gnomes will get lost in the rubble. Lavinia is intrigued by Vin's change of tint. Someone needs to lock those too in a room together, until they get over it. It drives me crazy. Every time we drop anchor, there goes Vin whipping out the dingy and paddling it to Lavinia. At least Avner is going ashore. I'll be able to get something done, other than listening to him whine.
Day 24: Rough night. A thick fog rolled in, the weather is probably going to change soon. We are anchored near the entrance of the Havekihu River. Later some kind of sea ooze monster attacked the ship and then the crew. The half-orc even jump into the middle of the damn slimey thing.
Day 27: Father Feres is on a barfing binge. He does not look well at all. Z and Urol are trying to get him to keep some food down.
Day 33: Father Feres came screaming up to the deck and exploded into the hugh blue frog monster. I've never seen anything like it, nor do I want to ever again. That thing was dangerous, we could have been in serious trouble.
Day 34: Rudolpho, Daria, Kongo and a few of the others started searching the ship, thinking that there is a poisoner aboard. The rest of the crew is grumbling again.
Day 36: After two more days of searching, Rudolpho has quit complaining about the food. Vin seems to be acting a bit different lately.
Day 37: Vin's skin has turned blue, Z says not to mention it that it might make him self-conscious.
Day 38: Another Lavinia dinner. There is going to be a field trip for that insufferable gnome Urol. He smells even worse than Newt. Maybe the gnomes will get lost in the rubble. Lavinia is intrigued by Vin's change of tint. Someone needs to lock those too in a room together, until they get over it. It drives me crazy. Every time we drop anchor, there goes Vin whipping out the dingy and paddling it to Lavinia. At least Avner is going ashore. I'll be able to get something done, other than listening to him whine.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Oh no! Not Again!
The voyage continues as the Blue Nixie and the Sea Wyvern sail down the coastline, getting closer to the horn of the peninsula where the Azure Sea and the Vohoun Ocean meet. Lavinia has the fleet stopped to weather out a very bad patch of fog, that rolls in as night falls.
During the night a flotsam ooze attaches itself to the Sea Wyvern and begins to attack the people on the deck. The ooze was transparent and sticky, at one point in the fight, it had several of the ships defenders grappled. The party defeated the ooze and Rudolpho jump into the water to search the debris that had been suspended in the ooze, and found several items on six boney corpses.
As the voyage resumes Father Feres becomes violently ill, and for several days can't keep anything down. One afternoon, Father Feres runs up topside and tears at his clothings and writhes on the deck in agony. A blue slaad tears its way out of his belly and begins to attack the nearest person. This is a tough and grueling battle, the blue even gates in another slaad (red) to fight. The party manages to survive the pummeling and win the day. Father Feres does not survive.
After a few more days, Rudolpho complains about a strange metallic taste in his food. The investigation reveals nothing, other than Newt is spending a lot of time in the galley. Vin begins to feel strange, only to awaken one morning and his skin has turned blue. Urol and Z suspect that Vin's elven heritage is probably sea-elf, and the prolonged exposure to the sea has brought about the manifestation. Lavinia thinks Vin is as handsome as ever.
At one of Lavinia's dinners she announces that the plans to stop and the ruins of the Tamoachan. The party grumbles, but Lavinia presses to Vin that their could be adventure and treasure. Daria also suggests that this is a good time to reform Avner, and drafts him into the shore party. Avner grudgingly goes along. On the hour hike there, Urol mentions that their might be a large reptile guarding the ruins. Urol, after being badgered, reveals that he got the information from a dying sea-elf and that he was the only one to survive after the rest of the group had been turned to stone.
Sure enough, a basilisk was had made it's lair at the entrance of the ruins. With deft archery, barbaric savagery, and combat prowess, the party battles and defeats the monster. The party expresses their unhappiness with Urol and his lack of candor.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Ortho, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 1260 each
Session Bonus: ring of mind shielding, gauntlets of ogre power, map of portals to Limbo, two scrolls of contact other plane.
Session Loot: 5000gp, Lavinia's down payment for the voyage. Also damages marble statue of reclining humanoid with head turned and legs drawn up (78 gp), and a small silver pyramid (3 gp).
During the night a flotsam ooze attaches itself to the Sea Wyvern and begins to attack the people on the deck. The ooze was transparent and sticky, at one point in the fight, it had several of the ships defenders grappled. The party defeated the ooze and Rudolpho jump into the water to search the debris that had been suspended in the ooze, and found several items on six boney corpses.
As the voyage resumes Father Feres becomes violently ill, and for several days can't keep anything down. One afternoon, Father Feres runs up topside and tears at his clothings and writhes on the deck in agony. A blue slaad tears its way out of his belly and begins to attack the nearest person. This is a tough and grueling battle, the blue even gates in another slaad (red) to fight. The party manages to survive the pummeling and win the day. Father Feres does not survive.
After a few more days, Rudolpho complains about a strange metallic taste in his food. The investigation reveals nothing, other than Newt is spending a lot of time in the galley. Vin begins to feel strange, only to awaken one morning and his skin has turned blue. Urol and Z suspect that Vin's elven heritage is probably sea-elf, and the prolonged exposure to the sea has brought about the manifestation. Lavinia thinks Vin is as handsome as ever.
At one of Lavinia's dinners she announces that the plans to stop and the ruins of the Tamoachan. The party grumbles, but Lavinia presses to Vin that their could be adventure and treasure. Daria also suggests that this is a good time to reform Avner, and drafts him into the shore party. Avner grudgingly goes along. On the hour hike there, Urol mentions that their might be a large reptile guarding the ruins. Urol, after being badgered, reveals that he got the information from a dying sea-elf and that he was the only one to survive after the rest of the group had been turned to stone.
Sure enough, a basilisk was had made it's lair at the entrance of the ruins. With deft archery, barbaric savagery, and combat prowess, the party battles and defeats the monster. The party expresses their unhappiness with Urol and his lack of candor.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Ortho, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 1260 each
Session Bonus: ring of mind shielding, gauntlets of ogre power, map of portals to Limbo, two scrolls of contact other plane.
Session Loot: 5000gp, Lavinia's down payment for the voyage. Also damages marble statue of reclining humanoid with head turned and legs drawn up (78 gp), and a small silver pyramid (3 gp).
Sunday, April 15, 2007
A Three Hour Tour
Rudolpho stands on the deck of the Sea Wyvern, his eyes trying to pierce the horizon. Something feels out of place. The rhythm of the waves dances along in the melody of the wind. Rudolpho can hear a song far away. In the early morning mists on the shoreline, he begins to see a face... Maria.
----------
After rescuing Vanderboren manor from a vicious reprisal from the smugglers in Kraken's cove, the party gets some much needed rest and relaxation time. The party cashes in their loot and goes shopping. Lavinia and the Vanderboren estate are a flurry of activity, as she establishes herself as the head of the household.
Vin receives an award for his bravery and effor, trying to rescue the patrons of a burning tavern. All hail, Vin! Champion of the City Watch of Sasserine. Hip, Hip, Huzzah! Lavinia even throws a banquet in his honor.
A month passes and Lavinia approaches the party. After studying the papers, left behind by her parents, she has discovered the plans for the Vanderborens to establish a colony on a far away island. The trade created by this could guarantee a position of prominence in the region, for the Vanderboren heir. Lavinia is assembling for a resupply trip to Far Shore, across the Vohoun Ocean to the Isle of Dread.
Lavinia is a ship short of hauling the necessary supplies, and is willing to contract the services of the Sea Wyvern for 10,000gp. In addition, Lavinia agrees to pay the salaries of any crew members that the party needs to hire to man the ship on the expedition, and for any necessary supplies.
A frenzy of preparations starts as party members prepare for their journey. The party hires a captain, Amella Venkalie and she takes over many of the duties for preparing the ship. She is capable, short tempered, and hates gnomes. Zaelinniaeus takes the position of navigator and Cap'n Spanky is demoted to First Mate Spanky. Kongu is appointed to chief of the watch since he never sleeps, and spends most of his time on deck anyway.
Some of the passengers are noteworthy. Father Feres, Lirith, Avner Meravanchi, Skald, and Urol Forol are all traveling to Far Shore. Avner made quite a fuss when he arrived late. Dispite Vin's efforts to negotiate with Avner, Daria 'stepped in' and resolved the issue.
The first night out, Lavinia invites everyone to dinner to celebrate their departure. The Jade Ravens make up some of the crew on the Blue Nixie, and the party gets to socialize with them at dinner. Lavinia seems genuinely excited about the trip, although some at the dinner table supposed she was more excited to have Vin there. After dinner, the party discovers a cut in the crossing rope, and is attacked by a 'pickled' mephit.
As the journey continues, all things are quiet. Except Avner. Apparently he has earned the wrath of Daria and Newt.
----------
Sea Wyvern's Captain's Log (by Amella Venkalie)
Day 0: The prick Avner showed up late. The arrogant bastard made me so mad I walked off. Apparently, he angered someone else because his servants carried him on board later. His precious horse has disappeared, and it wouldn't startle me to find out that the half-orc brute ate it. I made officers of two of the owners, they seemed to be competent. The elf is a bit bookish, for my likes. The other hasn't been sober enough yet to carry on.
Day 0: Afternoon, set sail finally. The weather is good.
Day 1: Lavinia's dinner. A boy, this group is going to be drama. Avner was practically drooling over Lavinia, it made me sick. I chuckled through the entire meal watching her snub the blow hard, and make goo-goo eyes at the strait-lace Vin guy. He seems her type. I don't know what happened to the rope or where that mephit came from.
Day 2: Damn, Avner is screaming again. The pair of trouble-makers are at work, its going to be a late night. I'll go up on deck and see if that half-orc fellow finally pins his foot to the deck with the ballista.
Day 14: Arrived at Fort Blackwell. The land lubbers all paraded ashore. Father Feres was in a hurry to visit some shrine. Avner returned in a huff. I think he pissed off his servants, because they did not return. Kongu did seem concerned that they did not return, but they weren't listed on the log either. Kongu is a strange creature, I've never seen anything like him. That half-orc, Rudolpho, must have an ex-girl friend name Maria the way he carries on about her. He talks about her almost as must as the damn ballista.
Day 20: That Kongu thing as a pet fish that is now glowing red. Some of the crew is getting spooked. They always get spooked at some point, but with the cast of characters on this ship, nothing should surprise them.
Day 21: A floating wreck named The Cresting Wave came up along side us in the darkness. Infested with undead, it was. The crew made quick work of them, and Nesta found a family trinket. That is going to go over well with the crew. Curses, eh. sorry lot they are.
Day 23: Avner came pleading to me. Pathetic worm. I told him he'd better make nice and be useful or there might not me enough of him left when we reach Far Shore. The Navigator is working on something, not sure what, boy he is a quiet fellow. At least he has his sea legs. Avner carries a bucket with him now.
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Newt, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 200 each
Session Bonus: 100 XP to Daria for creative solution to plot line
Session Loot: none.
----------
After rescuing Vanderboren manor from a vicious reprisal from the smugglers in Kraken's cove, the party gets some much needed rest and relaxation time. The party cashes in their loot and goes shopping. Lavinia and the Vanderboren estate are a flurry of activity, as she establishes herself as the head of the household.
Vin receives an award for his bravery and effor, trying to rescue the patrons of a burning tavern. All hail, Vin! Champion of the City Watch of Sasserine. Hip, Hip, Huzzah! Lavinia even throws a banquet in his honor.
A month passes and Lavinia approaches the party. After studying the papers, left behind by her parents, she has discovered the plans for the Vanderborens to establish a colony on a far away island. The trade created by this could guarantee a position of prominence in the region, for the Vanderboren heir. Lavinia is assembling for a resupply trip to Far Shore, across the Vohoun Ocean to the Isle of Dread.
Lavinia is a ship short of hauling the necessary supplies, and is willing to contract the services of the Sea Wyvern for 10,000gp. In addition, Lavinia agrees to pay the salaries of any crew members that the party needs to hire to man the ship on the expedition, and for any necessary supplies.
A frenzy of preparations starts as party members prepare for their journey. The party hires a captain, Amella Venkalie and she takes over many of the duties for preparing the ship. She is capable, short tempered, and hates gnomes. Zaelinniaeus takes the position of navigator and Cap'n Spanky is demoted to First Mate Spanky. Kongu is appointed to chief of the watch since he never sleeps, and spends most of his time on deck anyway.
Some of the passengers are noteworthy. Father Feres, Lirith, Avner Meravanchi, Skald, and Urol Forol are all traveling to Far Shore. Avner made quite a fuss when he arrived late. Dispite Vin's efforts to negotiate with Avner, Daria 'stepped in' and resolved the issue.
The first night out, Lavinia invites everyone to dinner to celebrate their departure. The Jade Ravens make up some of the crew on the Blue Nixie, and the party gets to socialize with them at dinner. Lavinia seems genuinely excited about the trip, although some at the dinner table supposed she was more excited to have Vin there. After dinner, the party discovers a cut in the crossing rope, and is attacked by a 'pickled' mephit.
As the journey continues, all things are quiet. Except Avner. Apparently he has earned the wrath of Daria and Newt.
----------
Sea Wyvern's Captain's Log (by Amella Venkalie)
Day 0: The prick Avner showed up late. The arrogant bastard made me so mad I walked off. Apparently, he angered someone else because his servants carried him on board later. His precious horse has disappeared, and it wouldn't startle me to find out that the half-orc brute ate it. I made officers of two of the owners, they seemed to be competent. The elf is a bit bookish, for my likes. The other hasn't been sober enough yet to carry on.
Day 0: Afternoon, set sail finally. The weather is good.
Day 1: Lavinia's dinner. A boy, this group is going to be drama. Avner was practically drooling over Lavinia, it made me sick. I chuckled through the entire meal watching her snub the blow hard, and make goo-goo eyes at the strait-lace Vin guy. He seems her type. I don't know what happened to the rope or where that mephit came from.
Day 2: Damn, Avner is screaming again. The pair of trouble-makers are at work, its going to be a late night. I'll go up on deck and see if that half-orc fellow finally pins his foot to the deck with the ballista.
Day 14: Arrived at Fort Blackwell. The land lubbers all paraded ashore. Father Feres was in a hurry to visit some shrine. Avner returned in a huff. I think he pissed off his servants, because they did not return. Kongu did seem concerned that they did not return, but they weren't listed on the log either. Kongu is a strange creature, I've never seen anything like him. That half-orc, Rudolpho, must have an ex-girl friend name Maria the way he carries on about her. He talks about her almost as must as the damn ballista.
Day 20: That Kongu thing as a pet fish that is now glowing red. Some of the crew is getting spooked. They always get spooked at some point, but with the cast of characters on this ship, nothing should surprise them.
Day 21: A floating wreck named The Cresting Wave came up along side us in the darkness. Infested with undead, it was. The crew made quick work of them, and Nesta found a family trinket. That is going to go over well with the crew. Curses, eh. sorry lot they are.
Day 23: Avner came pleading to me. Pathetic worm. I told him he'd better make nice and be useful or there might not me enough of him left when we reach Far Shore. The Navigator is working on something, not sure what, boy he is a quiet fellow. At least he has his sea legs. Avner carries a bucket with him now.
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Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Newt, Daria and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 200 each
Session Bonus: 100 XP to Daria for creative solution to plot line
Session Loot: none.
Experience Totals
As I have it, here are the current standings:
Nesta- 8190, 4th level
Rudolpho- 8190, 4th level
Vin- 7915, 4th level
Newt- 8140, 4th level
Chiri- 5310, 3rd level
Daria- 6060, 4th level
Kongu- 6725, 4th level
Nesta- 8190, 4th level
Rudolpho- 8190, 4th level
Vin- 7915, 4th level
Newt- 8140, 4th level
Chiri- 5310, 3rd level
Daria- 6060, 4th level
Kongu- 6725, 4th level
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Teen-age mutants, ninjas, and frogs!
The brave adventurers, after discovering the plot to assault the Vanderboren estate, make a hasty trip back to Sasserine to save Lavinia from suffering revenge directed at Vanthus.
The Sea Wyvern disembarks at Sasserine, and with due haste, the party speeds to the Vanthus estate. Hampering the partys travel, the city has erupted into a festival celebrating Wormfall. In the nearby city of Cauldron, adventurers stopped a sinister plot, one year ago. The city elders have ordered kites, fireworks, parades, feasts, floats, and acrobats to fill the city.
Kongu, who hasn't adjusted to being around meat-bags, bumps a rowdy gnome and with the help of Newt, starts a brawl in the street. Vin and Rudolpho do not let the distraction stop them, and continue to the estate. As lethal force is introduced into the brawl, the gnome's big half-orc side kick, weighs in and turns the tide of the skirmish. In the end, the party retreats into a carriage dragging the unconscience bodies of Kongu and Nesta along with them.
Vin and Rudolpho are making good progress when they happen across a float rolling out of control, and starting to burn. Not bothered with such a minor distraction, Rudolpho continues is progress to the Vanderboren manor. Vin, sensing danger for a nearby inn, struggles to stop the float from crashing into the building. But without help, Vin's single-handed efforts were not enough to stop the death and destruction. Vin rushes bravely into the burning building to help rescue a handful of patrons. The carriage picks up Vin, and they continue on.
Near the final bridge into the section of the city, where the Vanderboren estate is located, Rudolpho is stunned by an explosion. An entourage of six stiltwalking assassins, led by a sleek black leotard-clad acrobat, assault Rudolpho in the middle of the street. Ruddy, worn down by the last 24 hours of constant struggle, enters his last rage to combat these would-be interlopers. The fighting is fierce, grace and agility versus brutishness and strength. The party arrives in time to see Rudolpho fall to the sensual attacker. The party finishes off what little Rudolpho left, and revives the barbarian for the task ahead.
All is quiet at the Vanderboren manor, until Rudolpho (after one-too-many kicks to the head) announces to the hall that he has a note. The brawl breaks out, and moving from room to room, the party discovers Lavinia and other hostages on the top floor. The bullywug brutes are vicious, and wear the party down further. Lavinia opens a secret cache of supplied, and with the party reinvigorated, return to cleaning out the manor of the froggish infestation.
In the end, the bullywug chief and the acrobatic assassin escape. But Lavinia and the Vanderboren estate are saved. Lavinia increases the party's stipend to 200gp/month. Where is Vanthus? Where is Maria?
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Newt, and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 2420 each
Session Bonus: 300 XP to Vin
Session Loot: ring of protection +1, black skeleton leotard, jade serpent earrings (500gp), masterwork studded leather, masterwork scimitar, finely crafted silk belt (of ogre power), +1 leather armor (size M), periapt of wisdom, +1 repeating crossbow.
The Sea Wyvern disembarks at Sasserine, and with due haste, the party speeds to the Vanthus estate. Hampering the partys travel, the city has erupted into a festival celebrating Wormfall. In the nearby city of Cauldron, adventurers stopped a sinister plot, one year ago. The city elders have ordered kites, fireworks, parades, feasts, floats, and acrobats to fill the city.
Kongu, who hasn't adjusted to being around meat-bags, bumps a rowdy gnome and with the help of Newt, starts a brawl in the street. Vin and Rudolpho do not let the distraction stop them, and continue to the estate. As lethal force is introduced into the brawl, the gnome's big half-orc side kick, weighs in and turns the tide of the skirmish. In the end, the party retreats into a carriage dragging the unconscience bodies of Kongu and Nesta along with them.
Vin and Rudolpho are making good progress when they happen across a float rolling out of control, and starting to burn. Not bothered with such a minor distraction, Rudolpho continues is progress to the Vanderboren manor. Vin, sensing danger for a nearby inn, struggles to stop the float from crashing into the building. But without help, Vin's single-handed efforts were not enough to stop the death and destruction. Vin rushes bravely into the burning building to help rescue a handful of patrons. The carriage picks up Vin, and they continue on.
Near the final bridge into the section of the city, where the Vanderboren estate is located, Rudolpho is stunned by an explosion. An entourage of six stiltwalking assassins, led by a sleek black leotard-clad acrobat, assault Rudolpho in the middle of the street. Ruddy, worn down by the last 24 hours of constant struggle, enters his last rage to combat these would-be interlopers. The fighting is fierce, grace and agility versus brutishness and strength. The party arrives in time to see Rudolpho fall to the sensual attacker. The party finishes off what little Rudolpho left, and revives the barbarian for the task ahead.
All is quiet at the Vanderboren manor, until Rudolpho (after one-too-many kicks to the head) announces to the hall that he has a note. The brawl breaks out, and moving from room to room, the party discovers Lavinia and other hostages on the top floor. The bullywug brutes are vicious, and wear the party down further. Lavinia opens a secret cache of supplied, and with the party reinvigorated, return to cleaning out the manor of the froggish infestation.
In the end, the bullywug chief and the acrobatic assassin escape. But Lavinia and the Vanderboren estate are saved. Lavinia increases the party's stipend to 200gp/month. Where is Vanthus? Where is Maria?
==========
Session Characters: Rudolpho, Kongu, Vin, Nesta, Newt, and Zaelinniaeus
Session XP: 2420 each
Session Bonus: 300 XP to Vin
Session Loot: ring of protection +1, black skeleton leotard, jade serpent earrings (500gp), masterwork studded leather, masterwork scimitar, finely crafted silk belt (of ogre power), +1 leather armor (size M), periapt of wisdom, +1 repeating crossbow.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Wake of Destruction
With a brief rest, the brave adventurers resumed their exploration of Kraken's Cove. More death, mayhem, carnage. Twisted diseased pirates roam the caverns still hungry after fresh feedings. The party battled their way to find the leader of the Kraken's Cove, Kigante Valeros, dead at the hands of his infected followers. Nearby, the deft bladesmanship of the captain of Slippery Eel, fights off a remaining pocket of diseased pirates.
Harliss Javell tells a tale of Vanthus Vanderboren's continuing deception, betrayal, and villainy. Vanthus was aboard her ship to steal a giant black pearl, the size of a man's fist. During the struggle, the pearl shattered, and a wave of green gas swept the area. Those affected, turned into raving cannibals attacking those that weren't. In her rage, Harliss dispatched her lieutenant to exact revenge upon the Vanderborens. Now Drevoraz travels to Sasserine and the party must stop him.
Vanthus in his treachery, set fire to all but one of the ships. The Sea Wyvern is ready to sail, and the party has a new allies in their quest.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Newt, Daria, Vin, and Kongu
Session XP: 1900 each
Session Loot: +1 rapier with bronze griffon hilt, ring of swimming, darkwood buckler, 3 silver bars (30 gp each), vermillion ink (40 gp), +1 studded leather, masterwork rapier, purple silk cloak w/emerald clasp (20 gp), silver locket w/portrait of Vanthus Vanderboren (10 gp), mayless root paste, sassone leaf residue, id moss, striped toad stool, larval mind flayer (1000 gp), 2 potions of lessor restoration, masterwork kukri, slippers of spider climb, gold nose ring with silver chain and earring (100 gp), ruby ring (120 gp), leatherbound masterwork nautical charts (+4 circumstance bonus on plotting course), [in three chests] 120 gp, 448 sp, 683 cp, 3 garnets (20 gp each), an emerald brooch (50 gp), 5 pearls (100 gp each).
Harliss Javell tells a tale of Vanthus Vanderboren's continuing deception, betrayal, and villainy. Vanthus was aboard her ship to steal a giant black pearl, the size of a man's fist. During the struggle, the pearl shattered, and a wave of green gas swept the area. Those affected, turned into raving cannibals attacking those that weren't. In her rage, Harliss dispatched her lieutenant to exact revenge upon the Vanderborens. Now Drevoraz travels to Sasserine and the party must stop him.
Vanthus in his treachery, set fire to all but one of the ships. The Sea Wyvern is ready to sail, and the party has a new allies in their quest.
==========
Session Characters: Nesta, Rudolpho, Newt, Daria, Vin, and Kongu
Session XP: 1900 each
Session Loot: +1 rapier with bronze griffon hilt, ring of swimming, darkwood buckler, 3 silver bars (30 gp each), vermillion ink (40 gp), +1 studded leather, masterwork rapier, purple silk cloak w/emerald clasp (20 gp), silver locket w/portrait of Vanthus Vanderboren (10 gp), mayless root paste, sassone leaf residue, id moss, striped toad stool, larval mind flayer (1000 gp), 2 potions of lessor restoration, masterwork kukri, slippers of spider climb, gold nose ring with silver chain and earring (100 gp), ruby ring (120 gp), leatherbound masterwork nautical charts (+4 circumstance bonus on plotting course), [in three chests] 120 gp, 448 sp, 683 cp, 3 garnets (20 gp each), an emerald brooch (50 gp), 5 pearls (100 gp each).
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